 His role has been described as "pioneering" by BBC Sport.Léon Mokuna was born in the Belgian Congo in 1928 and grew up in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) where he became a protegé of the football-promoting Scheutist missionary Raphaël de la Kethulle de Ryhove, known as "Tata Raphaël".Playing football in Léopoldville, Mokuna gained the French nickname "Le Trouet" or "Trouet" ("little hole", phonetically derived from "troué!"