Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fabrice and his family fled the nation to seek asylum in the UK and in 1999 he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the country.
Fabrice started his football career at Arsenal where he was enrolled in the youth team as a young schoolboy and went on to make his debut against Sunderland in 2005. During the summer of 2006 he moved to Birmingham City on loan and eventually signed permanently for the club after helping the team win promotion to the Premier League. He was voted Player of the Year by the club’s fans.
Fabrice played internationally for England at every youth-level. He captained England’s Under-19s and went on to make 33 appearances for England’s Under-21s.
In 2008 he transferred to Bolton Wanderers and was voted Bolton Press Footballer of the Year. At the end of 2009-10 season Fabrice signed another four year deal at the club but tragedy struck on Saturday 17th March 2012 when he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch playing against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. Despite his heart stopping for 78 minutes he went on to make a remarkable recovery, finally being discharged from hospital just over a month later!
Unable to play football again, Fabrice has paved a career in the media and graduated with a BA in Sports Journalism from Staffordshire University in 2015. He has worked as a pundit for BBC, Sky, ITV and talkSPORT and has recently his UEFA A license.
Having worked with the Academy Team at Liverpool Football Club and Birmingham City, Fabrice has now taken up a coaching role at Stoke City.
Fabrice is dedicated to raising awareness of heart conditions and treatment and is an ambassador for the Arrythmia Alliance’s Hearts and Goals campaign, which aims to place more defibrillators in public places to ensure other people may survive sudden cardiac arrest.
Fabrice is a great inspiring choice of speaker for corporate events