Mikaël Silvestre

Mikaël Silvestre

Personal information
Full name	Mikaël Samy Silvestre
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Left back, centre back
Team information
Current team	Manchester United
Number	27
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 12:00, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Mikaël Silvestre (born August 9,1977 in Chambray-Les-Tours) is a French footballer, playing as a defender. He currently plays for Manchester United, as well as France internationally. He is married to Séverine and has a daughter named Cléo (born October 27, 2003).

Club career

Rennes

Silvestre began his career with the French club Rennes in the 1995/96 season. His time at the club helped build his reputation, and in the 1997/98 season was signed by Internazionale. He made 18 league appearances for Inter, as well as 6 European Cup games. Silvestre signed for Manchester United on September 10, 1999 for £4 million.

Silvestre is adept as both a centre-back and a left full-back, though he has stated that he prefers playing in the centre. Silvestre's most positive attribute is his pace, and he often sets up scoring opportunities. He is also noted for his crossing and tackling abilities.

Manchester United

He made his debut against Liverpool at Anfield in 1999. His first season at Manchester United was not exceptional replacing an injured Ronny Johnsen in the centre with Jaap Stam. By the 2001/2002 season Mikaël had established himself in the United defence ahead of the veteran Denis Irwin, and was proving to be adept both in defence and getting forward. He set up numerous goals for Ruud van Nistelrooy, notably away to Deportivo in a 2-0 towards the end of the season. There was criticism put his way after the Bayern Munich game where he was largely blamed for the late equaliser in the 1-1 draw, but this typified United's season as a whole, and he was one of their better performers.

During the next season, his most recent championship winning year he carried on initially where he left off, but following injury to Rio Ferdinand and the poor performance of an ageing Laurent Blanc, he was switched to his favoured position of central defence. Here he forged a successful partnership mid-season with Wes Brown at the heart of the defence until Ferdinand's return, looking calm and assured, using his pace to good effect, whilst continuing to provide goals with his accurate diagonal balls.

He continued in this role the following season where he and Rio Ferdinand excelled as a pair and after half a season where being touted as the best central defensive pairing the club had seen since Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister. However, this was cut short following Rio Ferdinand's eight month ban for missing a drug test. In the latter half of this season when being paired with an unfit Wes Brown, United's defence proved to be rather less secure and both Brown and Silvestre were at fault for numerous goals and despite winning the FA Cup with a 3-0 victory over Millwall, this uncertainty at the heart of the defence was to continue into the start of the 2004-05 season.

Now, following the partnership of Nemanja Vidic and Ferdinand flourishing at the heart of the defence, and Patrice Evra's excellence at left-back, Silvestre's place in the squad would appear to be less than secure. However at the end of last season he showed some fine form, particularly in the 2-0 victory over Arsenal and back at the left of United's defence. He admits that he was given the option to leave during the January transfer window during 2006, with an opportunity to join former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier at Lyon. However to his credit remained at the club and has since proven himself to be a useful member of the team.

He started the 2006-07 in typical style against Watford, scoring a classy goal, his first away goal for United, to give United the lead, and then 15 minutes later making a defensive error to aid their equaliser. He was starting to reassert himself in the left-back role when unfortunately he broke a metatarsal in a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal. After recovering and playing several games, he dislocated his shoulder in a Champions League win against Lille OSC, meaning he was unable to play for the rest of the season. [1].

Silvestre revealed that in the summer of 2007 he turned down the opportunity to sign for Newcastle United, because he refused to play in the same side as Joey Barton (who allegedly attacked Silvestre's close friend Ousmane Dabo).

On Friday August 11 2006 his loyalty to the club was rewarded with a new contract extending his stay at the club until at least 2009. Sir Alex Ferguson commented that: "Mikael has been an important member of the squad for seven years now. His experience at the Club will help the younger players as they develop and he has a central role to play in the first team."

With Heinze moving to Real Madrid, Silvestre was set to battle Evra for the starting left back spot in the first eleven at United in the 07/08 season.

On September 15th Silvestre was stretchered off with knee ligament damage. On the 16th September it was revealed that Silvestre had been ruled out for the rest of the season. On September 24th, Sir Alex Ferguson revealed that: "I'm sure Mikael will be back in March," Sir Alex said. "We had him operated on in France last week and it all went well. It was pleasing to see there was no further damage other than the cruciate ligament. That's a big bonus because sometimes there can be cartilage problems that also come along."

International career

He earned his first senior cap for France on February 27 2001 in a friendly against Germany that ended in a 1-0 win. He won the Confederations Cup both in 2001 and 2003 with France. However, he received criticism for his performance in Euro 2004, where he gave away penalties to both England and Croatia, before France were knocked out by Greece in the quarter-finals. Previously he was a member of French junior team at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He also played one game in the French squad that made the 2006 World Cup final.

Honours

With Manchester United (1999 - present)

• FA Premier League - Champion : 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07
• FA Premier League - Runner Up: 2001-02, 2005-06
• FA Cup Winner : 2004
• FA Cup Runner Up: 2005, 2007
• League Cup Winner : 2006
• League Cup Runner Up: 2003
• Community Shield Winner : 2003, 2007
• Community Shield Runner Up: 2000, 2001, 2004

External links

• Mikaël Silvestre at Soccerbase