Lionel Mathis

Lionel Mathis
Mathis in Guingamp's jersey (2014)
Personnel
birthday	4th October 1981
place of birth	Montreuil ,  France
size	174 cm
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
0000-1995	US Vaires
1995-1998	INF Clairefontaine
1998-2000	AJ Auxerre
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2001-2007	AJ Auxerre	160 (13)
2007-2009	FC Sochaux	16 0(0)
2008-2009	→  EA Guingamp  (loan)	33 0(1)
2009-2016	EA Guingamp	210 0(8)
2016-2017	AJ Auxerre	26 0(2)
1 Only league games are given.

Lionel Mathis (born October 4, 1981 in Montreuil ) is a former French football player .

Club career

The 174 centimeter tall midfielder Mathis began playing football at US Vaires from Vaires-sur-Marne, which is based in the greater Paris area . In 1995, at the age of 14, he was accepted into the national center technique national Fernand-Sastre . In 1998 he was accepted into the youth department of the AJ Auxerre professional club . With the club's A youth team, he won the nationwide junior cup competition Coupe Gambardella a year later . In 2000 he signed his first professional contract, but was initially not considered for the first division team in the following time. The then 19-year-old made his debut in the top national division on January 13, 2001, when he came on as a substitute for Olivier Kapo in a 1-1 draw against FC Nantes in the 84th minute . He was then regularly called back to the team and played his first game over the full 90 minutes on February 7 of the same year in a 2-0 win over FC Toulouse . In the second half of the 2001/02 season, Mathis, who was mainly deployed in the central midfield and was also used in all other midfield positions, became a regular. In the following time he was able to convince with such good performances that he was awarded the League's Young Player of the Year in 2003 ; this honor was mainly given to upcoming national players before and after him.

At Auxerre, shortly after the turn of the millennium, he was part of one of the strongest teams in France, which even qualified for the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League in 2002 . On October 30, 2002, he was on the field from the start in an encounter against PSV Eindhoven and thus completed his first game in the premier league of European football. The team finished third in the group, was allowed to continue playing in the UEFA Cup and was eliminated in the round of 16 against Liverpool . The team also made it to the French Cup final in 2003 , where they met Paris Saint-Germain . Mathis was part of the starting XI and won the trophy with a 2-1 win. In the 2004/05 season he drew attention on the continental level when he reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup with Auxerre. In addition, they made it to the national cup final in 2005 , which the team won 2-1 against CS Sedan with a goal in stoppage time in the second half; Mathis was on the field as a striker, but could not contribute his own goal. In November 2006 he clashed with the opposing goalkeeper Ulrich Ramé in an encounter against Girondins Bordeaux , injured himself and was out for more than four months. Then he managed to return, but was no longer a regular player and moved to first division rivals FC Sochaux in the summer of 2007 when his contract with Auxerre expired .

Shortly after moving to Sochaux, he injured himself again at the beginning of the 2007/08 season and then had to be content with occasional missions. This led to the fact that he was awarded to the second division club EA Guingamp in 2008 . At Guingamp he immediately became a top performer and was allowed to play for the trophy for the third time in the 2009 cup final against the Stade Rennes . For the third time the game ended 2-1 in favor of his team and brought him the title win. Shortly afterwards he returned to Sochaux to take part in the preparation for the 2009/10 season, but soon after switched to Guingamp for a permanent commitment. In 2010 he had to accept the fall into the third division, but remained loyal to the club and was then named captain of the team. A year later he returned to the second division and in 2013 he made it to the top division with the Brittany- based club. He returned to the top class as an undisputed regular player and also reached the 2014 cup final . As captain, he led the team into an encounter in which they met again at the Stade Rennes. However, he was the only Guingamp player who had been involved in the success five years earlier. Since his team prevailed 2-0, he booked his fourth win in this competition. This makes him one of the most successful players in the almost hundred-year history of this competition; only three footballers ( Marceau Somerlinck , Dominique Bathenay and Alain Roche ) have won the Coupe de France more often than Mathis.

Following the cup success, he retained his role as a top performer and survived the group stage with his team in the 2014/15 Europa League before they failed in the subsequent round at Dynamo Kiev . In the 2015/16 season, Guingamp was primarily concerned with securing relegation, with Mathis significantly losing time as captain. After his contract expired, he moved to his former club AJ Auxerre in the second division in the summer of 2016. In 2017 he ended his career at the age of 35.

National team

As a junior player, Mathis was on the field for several French youth teams, first for the U-15 national team. With the U-18 team, he took part in the U-18 European Championship in 2000 and won the title by beating Ukraine 1-0 in the final. Two years later he was a member of the squad for the U-21 European Championship in 2002 and moved into the final with France; there the team was inferior to the Czechs on penalties. On November 18, 2003, he wore the jersey of the U-21 team for the last time in a 2-1 defeat by Portugal. He never came to a job for the senior national team of France.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ma formation ( Memento of the original of May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , lionel-mathis.info 
2. ↑ ^{a b} biography ( memento of the original from September 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , lionel-mathis.info 
3. ^ ^{A b} Lionel Mathis , transfermarkt.de