Although he was not the driver of the vehicle, Junior Malanda tragically lost his life ten years ago in a road accident. He was one of the great talents of the Devils’ golden generation.
Ten years ago, to the day on January 10, 2025, Junior Malanda, then twenty years old, tragically lost his life in a road accident. His friend and driver, Anthony d’Alberto, defender of the Anderlecht junior team, lost control of his Volkswagen at 120 km/h on a road limited to 80 km/h.
Great hope of Belgian football, having passed through the training centers of RSCA and Lille, but also, briefly, by the RWDM, he revealed himself to the general public during the 2012-2013 season, under the colors of Zulte-Waregem .
Belgian vice-champion with Essevee, two lengths behind Sporting Anderlecht at the end of a title race which was decided until the last match, Junior Malanda, then a defensive midfielder, had just achieved a season allowing him to become an U21 international, but above all to put himself in the heads of the leaders of certain European leaders.
Within a team in which a certain Thorgan Hazard played, but also Mbaye Leye, the late Franck Berrier, Davy De Fauw and even Sammy Bossut, Junior Malanda, then bought by Wolfsburg during the summer for four million euros, was loaned during the first part of the following season to the Rainbow Stadium, which allowed him to play a preliminary round of the Champions League against PSV, then the group stage of the Europa League with Zulte.
A great talent in Belgian football, born in Brussels, he then proved himself in the Bundesliga, making nine starts and around fifteen appearances alongside Kevin De Bruyne, Ivan Perisic, Luiz Gustavo and Ivica Olic. In 2014-2015, Wolfsburg finished runner-up in Germany behind Bayern Munich at the end of an exceptional season and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
Still starting against Cologne on December 20, 2014, in the middle of this historic VFL season, Junior Malanda died two weeks later, tragically. A decade later, the world of Belgian football still remembers perfectly well a boy full of talent, but also and above all of incredible simplicity.
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