page_title: Cédric Bakambu
section_title: Villarreal
hierarchical_section_title: Cédric Bakambu / Club career / Villarreal
caption_attribution_description: Español: Bakambu.
context_page_description: Cédric Bakambu is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan and the DR Congo national team.
  He made his professional debut for Sochaux in 2010, and played 107 official games for them over five seasons, scoring 21 goals. He then moved to Bursaspor for €1.8 million, finishing as top scorer as his team came runners-up in the Turkish Cup, before signing for Villarreal a year later.
  Born in France, he represented them internationally at youth level up to the under-20s, scoring eight goals in 38 games and winning the 2010 UEFA European Championship for the under-19s. In 2015, he made his senior debut for the DR Congo national team.
context_section_description: On 19 August 2015, Spanish side Villarreal CF announced the signing of Bakambu on a five-year contract. He made his La Liga debut four days later, replacing Léo Baptistão in the 61st minute of a 1–1 draw at Real Betis in the first game of the season; on the 28th he came on for the same player and scored two goals in the closing minutes of the fixture against RCD Espanyol at Estadio El Madrigal, to secure a 3–1 victory for the "Yellow Submarine".
  Bakambu played his first game in European competition on 17 September, again as a substitute in a 2–1 loss at SK Rapid Wien in the group stage of the season's UEFA Europa League. On 22 October, he scored his first goals in the tournament, a first-half double in a 4–0 home win over FC Dinamo Minsk; he added another two the following 10 March against Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the last 16 (2–0 win, same aggregate). In the quarter-finals, he scored twice in each leg of a 6–3 aggregate win over Sparta Prague. He was one of four strikers named in the competition's Squad of the Season, and his 9 goals put him only one behind the top scorer, Athletic Bilbao's Aritz Aduriz.
  On 1 October 2017, Bakambu scored a hat-trick in a 3–0 home win over SD Eibar. He then scored two goals in a 2–1 win at Girona FC and another in a 4–0 win over UD Las Palmas to be named La Liga Player of the Month, the first African to win the award.
  In early January 2018, Villarreal manager Javier Calleja said that Bakambu was going through a transfer to Beijing Sinobo Guoan of the Chinese Super League. On 17 January 2018, Bakambu rescinded his contract with Villarreal. Two weeks later, however, Beijing Guoan still had not announced the signing of Bakambu who had already played and scored for the club. It was reported that Beijing Guoan were trying to avoid paying a 100 percent tax placed on incoming transfers worth over 45 million yuan (US$7 million) by the Chinese Football Association. The transfer went through in time for the start of the Chinese season with the full fees being paid.
caption: Bakambu in action for Villarreal in December 2015.
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