Laurent Delamontagne

Laurent Delamontagne (born October 9, 1965 in Rennes ) is a former French football player .

Career

Youth (until 1985)

At the age of eight, the younger brother of the future national player Patrick Delamontagne (* 1957) joined the local soccer club Espérance from La Bouëxiere . In this, the striker went through the various ages until he was accepted into the youth department of the neighboring professional club Stade Rennes in 1979 . In the jersey of the club from the Breton regional capital, he proved to be so talented that he was allowed to compete for various French youth national teams. In the club he rose some time later to the reserve team and was used for this in the third division.

Breakthrough at Rennes (1985–1992)

On March 2, 1985 he made his debut for the first team of Rennes when he ran up in a 3-2 win against SC Abbeville for the second division. Subsequently, however, the young player received the trust of coach Pierre Mosca only very sporadically . Instead, he mainly played in reserve. During the 1985/86 season, in which Rennes again made a first-class appearance, he did not complete a single league encounter. He had to wait until October 4, 1986 to come to his debut in the French top division in a 2-1 loss to RC Lens . From then on he was regularly called up and just a few weeks later experienced a direct duel against his brother Patrick, who was under contract with Stade Laval . The player , who was mostly used as a right winger at the time, could not prevent Rennes from relegating again in 1987 . In the second division he consolidated his regular place and scored his first goals in the professional field. During the season he was given another striker in the form of the Dutchman Erik van den Boogard , which did not damage his established role.

In the summer of 1988, the squad was reinforced by his brother. Thereupon he got off to a very strong start to the new season, which was reflected in six goals in seven games. The siblings and van den Boogard formed an attacking trio that embodied the third strongest offensive in the league and brought Rennes to third place in the table. The 13-time goalscorer Delamontagne missed the promotion because his team was defeated in the relegation. Although he was successful as a goalscorer only nine times in 1989/90, he was able to celebrate his return to the first division at the end of the season. It was followed by a poor sporting year, which ended in last place in the table and in which Rennes only held the class due to three forced relegations. The 1991/92 season, which he had to contest again without his brother, finally brought relegation. After a total of 13 years, he also said goodbye to the Stade Rennes, as he had found a new employer in the first division Olympique Lyon .

Runner-up with Lyon (1992–1995)

At Lyon he also got a regular place, but like in the past few years at Rennes he hardly appeared as a goal scorer; in the course of the 1993/94 season he met only once. Although it was increasingly rarely bet on him, he was still used regularly when his team took second place in the table during the 1994/95 season and thus became national runner-up. This went hand in hand with the qualification for the European competition and an increase in the squad, which meant that he no longer had any prospects. Because of this, he moved to the second division SCO Angers in the summer of 1995 .

Second division with Angers and Valence (1995-1999)

With the West French from Angers he had a secure regular place, but had to accept relegation to the third division in 1996. He then said goodbye after only a year and signed a new contract with the second-rate club ASOA Valence in the south of the country. After two good seasons that ended in the middle of the table, his team in 1998/99 only narrowly escaped relegation. In 1999 the now 33-year-old ended his professional career after 181 first division games and 18 goals as well as 240 second division games and 41 goals. He then spent another four seasons with the fifth division US Montélimar . He later took on a job in the communications industry.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Football: Laurent Delamontagne , footballdatabase.eu
2. ↑ Un oeil dans le rétro Laurent Delamontagne , stade-rennais-online.com
3. ↑ Laurent Delamontagne - Fiche et statistiques , stade-rennais-online.com