{"id":8513,"date":"2026-01-07T04:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8513\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T04:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:02:11","slug":"dr-congos-human-statue-becomes-africas-most-famous-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8513\/","title":{"rendered":"DR Congo&#8217;s human statue becomes Africa&#8217;s most famous fan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>His team was knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations in agonizing fashion on Tuesday, but the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s human statue Michel Kuka Mboladinga will be remembered as the tournament\u2019s most remarkable supporter.<\/p>\n<p>Kuka has attracted attention at the Africa Cup of Nations where he has spent entire matches motionless in the stands, adopting a pose in tribute to Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.<\/p>\n<p>SUBSCRIBE TO KEEP READING<\/p>\n<p>Daily TV listings for U.S. and global soccer.<\/p>\n<p>Inside access to USA\u2019s 2026 World Cup prep.<\/p>\n<p>Exclusive interviews with players and coaches.<\/p>\n<p>Expert analysis of top soccer headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Cancel anytime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Already have an account? Sign in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not ready to subscribe? Sign up here for our free newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Already have an account? Sign in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.socceramerica.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His team was knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations in agonizing fashion on Tuesday, but the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,5902],"class_list":{"0":"post-8513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-african-nations-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}