Hibernians and Malta international winger Joseph Mbong made his 100th Premier Division appearance against Gudja United last Saturday at the Centenary Stadium (1-1). A wonderful milestone for the young Nigerian born player, considering he is only 22 years old.
Joseph moved from Nigeria to Malta when he was two years old and eventually joined the Hibernians FC youth nursery at the age of 10. Twelve days before his 17th birthday, Mbong made his official senior debut for the Paola based club, during the Europa League Qualification match of Hibernians at home against Spartak Trnava (3 July 2014, 2-4), with the talented midfielder making a late substitute appearance in the team of coach Branko Nisevic.
During that same season, 2014/15, Mbong made his debut in the Premier Division, to be exact on 27 August 2014 versus Sliema Wanderers (3-1). He has always been on the books of Hibernians, with exception of an indifferent six month experience in Croatia with Inter Zapresic at the start of 2017.
The technically gifted player, with great dribbling abilities, is part of the current NT squad of coach Ray Farrugia and made his international debut for Malta during a summer trainingcamp in Austria in 2018, entering the fray as a substitute in a Friendly against Armenia (29 May 2018, 1-1). He did not lose his place in the final Malta NT squad ever-since. He also plated 17 official games for the Malta U21 squad and played a huge part in the European U21 Championship wins over Latvia (1-0) and Moldova (3-2) in 2016.
Mbong, who always has been a player with great pace and strength, played nine official games for the Malta U19 team, with as highlight the 1-3 away win in Ireland over Gibraltar in 2014, in the UEFA U19 Championship. Earlier that same year, Joseph participated in the U17 European Championships, held in Malta, where he scored one of the two Maltese goals against The Netherlands in Gozo (2-5). In total, he also made nine official appearances for the Malta U17 team.
He won the Maltese Championship twice with Hibernians (2015 and 2017) and reached the Final of the FA Trophy in 2015, with Birkirkara beating ‘Hibs’ 2-0. Besides the 100 appearances and four goals in the MPL, Mbong also made 14 appearances in the FA Trophy (3 goals in total) and appeared in one Super Cup Final, in 2017, losing to Floriana (0-1). With Hibernians, Mbong appeared in 11 European Cup matches, reaching the next round once after beating Estonian side FC Infonet Tallinn 3-0 on aggregate in the UEFA Champions League Qualification 2017/18.