He spent two seasons at the Stade Vélodrome before joining Portuguese side Porto in the summer of 2015 for €20 million. After seven months at Porto, Imbula joined English club Stoke City for a club record £18.3 million. Despite making a promising start at Stoke, he had a poor 2016–17 season and was sent on loan to Ligue 1 side Toulouse in 2017–18, La Liga side Rayo Vallecano in 2018–19 and Serie A side Lecce in 2019–20.