News

MC Loka as he was called in his Rap group, Cameroon footballer Karl Toko Ekambi almost became a rapper instead of becoming a professional footballer.

Karl Brillant Toko-Ekambi was part of a famous French rap group called Mafia Zeutrei popularly known as MZ which was founded in 2007. The rap group was made up of few big names such as Jok’Air, Dehmo and Hachei-P. The Rennes player had the stage name MC Loka back then and he was a pretty good rapper too.

Watch one of his rap videos below 👇

The 30 year old started developing interest for football in 2008 but that did not stop him from pursuing his rap carreer.

He started football at Paris FC and evolved there until U16 where, following relegation and a badly treated and painful knee, he decided to stop playing. Educated in a boarding school in Eure , he only played indoors with his friends.

During an interview in 2020, he revealed how he almost gave up on football “I did not play in a club for a year and a half then I resumed with my friends in U19 PH at the Gobelins (in 2008). I said to myself that I was perhaps wasting something and Paris FC took me back after a try”

Despite starting his professional football carreer in 2010 with Paris FC, Ekambi continued making Rap appearances with his Rap group MZ until 2015 when he decided to concentrate only on football. After two albums, the group broke up in 2016 following disagreements between the artists and the producer.

We will all agree that Karl Toko Ekambi decision to follow football instead of Rap played out well for him as the player is currently one of Cameroon’s best players in this generation. He was part of the Cameroon team that lifted the Afcon in 2017 and also part of the team that finish third in Afcon 2021 on home soil. The star is mostly remembered for his last minute goal against Algeria in the 2022 FIFA World Cup play offs which qualified Cameroon for the tournament.