Steed Malbranque

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Steed Malbranque
Malbranque.jpg
Personnel
birthday January 6, 1980
place of birth MouscronBelgium
position midfield
Juniors
Years station
1994-1997 Olympique Lyon
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1997-2001 Olympique Lyon 77 0(5)
2001-2006 Fulham FC 172 (32)
2006-2008 Tottenham Hotspur 62 0(6)
2008-2011 Sunderland AFC 102 0(1)
2011 AS Saint-Etienne 1 0(0)
2012-2016 Olympique Lyon 93 0(6)
2016-2017 SM Caen 13 0(0)
2016-2017 SM Caen II 2 0(1)
2017– Monts d'Or Azergues Foot 5 0(1)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
France U-16
France U18
France U-21
1 Only league games are given.
As of January 30, 2018

Steed Malbranque (born January 6, 1980 in Mouscron ) is a French football player . The midfielder played in the English Premier League for Fulham FC , Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland AFC between 2001 and 2011 . He began his career in the mid-1990s with the French first division club Olympique Lyon , where he initially returned in the summer of 2012. He is now active for a lower class French club.

Career

Training and first steps in France (until 2001)

Malbranque was born in Mouscron, Belgium. For professional reasons, his parents later moved to France, to the Ain department in Oyonnax . At the US Oyonnax there , he took his first steps in organized football before moving to Montpellier in the early 1990s . From the mid-1990s he was part of the youth department of Olympique Lyon and the early successes of winning the U-15 championship, the Coupe Gambardella in 1997 and the title in the reserve teams promoted him to captain of the French U-18 national team. Also in 1997, the somewhat short and stocky midfielder was brought into the first team of "OL".

He made his debut in the first team on February 21, 1998 against HSC Montpellier and after only one further appearance in the 1997/98 season he received more probation opportunities in midfield in the subsequent season 1998/99 after the departure of Reynald Pedros . He played 21 league games and in the following two years he established himself not only at home, but also especially in the 2000/01 season in the Champions League with ten appearances - among them his performances against Arsenal and Bayern Munich were great Attention. In May 2001, he also won the French League Cup with Lyon , although he was only on the bench in the final. In August 2001 he finally moved to England for Fulham FC .

Fulham FC (2001-2006)

Fulham had recently been promoted to the Premier League and French coach Jean Tigana paid a transfer fee of five million pounds for Malbranque. As a link in midfield with the attack, ball distributor and specialist in set pieces , he was well introduced to the new environment. It also helped that he had the toughest tackle required for English football and that he was dangerous with ten competitive goals in his 2001/02 debut season. He delivered further evidence in this regard in the 2002/03 season with nine goals in six games at the turn of the year. As the "heart" of the midfield game in Fulham, he was the only player in his club in the 2003/04 season to play all Premier League games - despite increasing opposing attacks. With a growing reputation, he also played himself in the focus of the French senior team , but two years after he had led the U-21 selection as captain to the final of the European Championship in 2002 , senior national coach Jacques Santini appointed him for the first time in March 2004 the squad, but renounced it at the upcoming Euro 2004 in Portugal .

After an injury break at the beginning of the 2004/05 season, Malbranque returned to the team at the end of September 2004 and at the end of a comparatively mediocre year with 22 league appearances in the starting XI, he showed the best with two goals on the penultimate matchday against Blackburn Rovers (3-1) Power. Malbranque's fifth and final season in Fulham was marked by fewer injuries, but despite his constant performances he remained unconsidered in the French selection - this should remain so in the further course of his career; In addition, there were always mind games to nominate him for the Belgian or English national team (also without result). At the end of April 2006 he contributed goals to victories against Wigan Athletic (1-0) and away at Manchester City (2-1) before leaving in the summer . The fact that Fulham let him move to Tottenham Hotspur was in particular due to the fact that Malbranque's contract only had a one-year remaining term and since there was no agreement on an extension, he moved on to Tottenham for an unspecified transfer fee - this is supposed to be but were 2 to 2.5 million pounds.

Tottenham & Sunderland (2006-2011)

Steed Malbranque in the Sunderland AFC jersey

Tottenham signed Malbranque knowing that he would have to sideline until November 2006 due to an injury. After his debut, he quickly became one of the crowd's favorites due to his commitment, ball control and good passing game in midfield. In total, he was in the starting line-up in 30 competitive games in the course of his first Tottenham season, plus eleven substitutions. He completed no fewer than 55 compulsory games - 52 of them from the start - for Tottenham in the 2007/08 season. He mostly occupied the left side, but also acted in a “free position” in the center if necessary and, thanks to his strength in a duel, he often helped to “plug holes” on the defensive. In February 2008 he was on the occasion of the final of the League Cup in the starting line-up against Chelsea , which Tottenham won 2-1 after extra time. Malbranque had been substituted for Teemu Tainio after 75 minutes when the score was 1: 1. Together with Tainio and Pascal Chimbonda , he was then one of three Tottenham players who joined the Sunderland AFC coached by Roy Keane in the summer of 2008 .

In the first half of the 2008/09 season Malbranque was in good shape in Sunderland. He prepared numerous goals (in the assist table he was temporarily in one of the top places), from which Djibril Cissé particularly benefited. However, the performances at Malbranque and Sunderland in general decreased rapidly in the second half of the season. In March 2009, he lost his regular place for three games before he returned to the team and delivered his best performance on the last day of the game against Chelsea (2: 3). Under the new coach Steve Bruce , Malbranque struggled for a long time on the left side and in the center in the 2009/10 season before, after a brief break as a right midfielder, he contributed to the fact that a series of fourteen league games ended without a win and the team performance stabilized again. After a third and final year, Malbranque said goodbye to Sunderland after a total of 112 competitive games and two goals in early August 2011. The decision to return to France with his wife and children should have been in the foreground. In Sunderland, despite the one-year remaining contract term, he was released free of charge because it saved the “top earner” 's salary.

Return to France (since 2011)

The goal on his return was the first division AS Saint-Étienne in France . There he signed a contract for two years, but after just under a month Malbranque broke the contract with Saint-Étienne by mutual agreement.

After the sudden interruption of his football career, he stayed without a contract with a club for a year before training at Olympique Lyon at the beginning of the 2012/13 season to keep in shape. On August 4, 2012, he was taken on as a substitute in the squad during the friendly against FC Porto in the course of the game. The club announced on August 25, 2012 that the player had signed a one-season contract. On the fourth matchday it came to the return to Ligue 1 against FC Valenciennes . On November 4, 2012, he scored his first goal of the season against SC Bastia with a penalty in added time. In December 2012, Lyon extended the contract with Malbranque until the end of the 2013/14 season.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. "Steed Malbranque, presque star et déjà joueur marchandise malgré lui" (humanite.fr)
  2. "Player of the Day: Steed Malbranque" (safc.com)
  3. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2002, ISBN 1-85291-648-6 , pp. 2873 .
  4. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 1-85291-651-6 , pp. 284 f .
  5. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2004/2005 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2004, ISBN 1-85291-660-5 , pp. 268 .
  6. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2005/2006 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85291-662-1 , pp. 270 .
  7. a b Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2006-07 . Mainstream Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-84596-111-0 , pp. 271 f .
  8. ^ "Eriksson voulait des naturalisés" (L'Equipe)
  9. ^ Turner, Dennis: Fulham - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-566-1 , pp. 184 f .
  10. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2007-08 . Mainstream Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84596-246-3 , pp. 271 .
  11. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008-09 . Mainstream Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8 , pp. 283 f .
  12. a b Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009-10 . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0 , pp. 276 f .
  13. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010-11 . Mainstream Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84596-601-0 , pp. 275 .
  14. "Malbranque right to leave Sunderland - Bruce" (BBC Sport)
  15. "Malbranque résilie officiellement son contrat avec l'ASSE" (asse.fr)
  16. "Malbranque extends contract with Olympique Lyonnais" (Goal.com)