NEW GULL PROFILE

Sam Jones – @samuellejones

Sam talks about the newest Gull

Yes, this New Gull Profile is late. Yes I know that he’s played three games for us, and has already won the hearts of the Yellow Army, but can’t we all agree that late is better than never? United announced the signing of Offrande “Ozzy” Zanzala in typical United fashion with a fun video featuring the ever present kitman, Russell Cleave. But who exactly is the newest Gull?

https://twitter.com/TUFC1899/status/1894444760175095950

CAREER SUMMARY

Ozzy was born in Brazzaville, the Capital of the Congo, in 1996 but fled to Austria with his family when he was three to escape the Second Congo Civil War. He then moved to the UK when he was eight, and ended up joining the Derby County academy in 2008. He was on the Rams books until 2018, where he was released without making a first team appearance. He went on to join Accrington Stanley, where he stayed for a couple of years before leaving in 2020. Spells at Crewe, Carlisle and Barrow followed, but he failed to become a regular at any of them. While he was at Barrow, he actually went on loan to Exeter City and was part of the Matt Jay captained team that won promotion to League One.

In June 2022 he found his way to South Wales where he spent two very injury hit years at Newport County, managing only 34 appearances across all competitions before being released. He then went up North again to join Fylde in their eternal quest to reach the Football League. However, unlike Fylde’s stay in Non-League, it didn’t last and Ozzy agreed to part ways in February of 2025. He then decided to drive most of the length of the country and join Paul Wotton’s Gulls.

HIGHLIGHTS

Here he is scoring a lovely looping finish for Newport County after some shocking Colchester defending:

And here he is scoring two for Newport in a 4-1 win at Harrogate:

TALKING ABOUT MATT

Chris Beech on Ozzy when he signed for Fylde – “He’s a great personality around the dressing room and he will endear himself to his teammates through hard work and his technical capabilities.”

Andy Ealey on OZ after his MOTM performance at Chippenham – “One goal and one ‘assist’ in this game, and you can understand why PW has been trying to bring him in all season. Looked busy, lively, can rough it up with opposition defenders and links play really well.”

ZANZALA STATS

DATE OF BIRTH: 8TH NOVEMBER 1996 – 28 YEARS-OLD

BIRTHPLACE: BRAZZAVILLE, CONGO

HEIGHT: 1.85M

POSITION: CENTRE-FORWARD

NL 24-25 STATS: APPEARANCES 12, GOALS 0, YELLOW CARDS 0, RED CARDS 0

MOST LIKELY/LEAST LIKELY

Most Likely To

Alternate with Cody Cooke. Cody has been superb for us this season (on the whole), but he looks like he’s beginning to run on fumes. Ozzy will provide some much needed depth for Wotton, as well as a different option up front.
Score the second goal in a 3-1 win at Chippenham. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling he will…

Least Likely To

Score 20 goals a season. He’s not scored many goals in his career (about 1 in every 5 games), but I get the impression he’s in the team for his all round work rate and selfless running. With the other forward options we have, he may not need to be prolific.
Become the front-man of Black Sabbath. They already have one Ozzy, I don’t think they need another.

CONCLUSION

The last striker who I wrote a New Gull Profile about, Emmanuel Ilesanmi, played about 20 minutes for the Gulls before doing his Hammy, Ozzy has already beaten his record, and then some. In his three games with the Gulls so far, he’s shown why Wotton wanted to bring him in with his hard work and non-stop running, despite having one leg. If he can stay fit, and rotate with Cody to keep them both fresh, then we could have a really handy player to help fire us back to the National League.