Arnaud Gonzalez

Gonzalez was born in Dijon, Côte-d'Or, on 24 August 1977. He played junior football with local team Marsannay-la-Côte until 1992, when he joined the youth setup at AJ Auxerre at the age of 14. He played in the Auxerre side that won the France Under-17s cup in 1994. Gonzalez was selected to represent the France national under-19 football team at the UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship in 1996. He played alongside footballers such as Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Mikael Silvestre and Yoann Bigné in the team that won the competition, defeating Spain in the final.

Gonzalez was promoted to the Auxerre first-team in 1995 and made his Ligue 1 debut on 27 January 1996 in the 1–0 victory against Le Havre AC, as a replacement for Christophe Cocard, who was suspended for the game. Gonzalez did not make another league appearance for the club during the 1995–96 season as they won Ligue 1 and were crowned champions of France. He spent the whole of the following campaign in the reserves, scoring 9 goals in 21 matches. Gonzalez returned to the first-team towards the end of the 1997–98 season, and scored his first senior goal for Auxerre in the 2–1 win away at SC Bastia on 7 March 1998. He also made one brief appearance in the UEFA Cup. Gonzalez attributed his lack of first-team experience in his early years with Auxerre to the reluctance of manager Guy Roux to rotate the squad, even when players were carrying injuries. After making only one more appearance for the club between 1998 and 2000, Gonzalez was put on the list of players available to be loaned to Ligue 2 clubs in the summer of 2000. AS Beauvais Oise manager Jacky Bonnevay expressed an interest in Gonzalez, and he joined the team on a season-long loan for the 2000–01 campaign. He impressed the manager in pre-season, scoring the winning goal in a 2–1 friendly win against Red Star Saint-Ouen. Gonzalez made his full Beauvais debut in the club's first league match of the season, a 1–3 home defeat to Montpellier HSC on 29 July 2000, and played in all of the team's opening 17 matches of the…

Auxerre

Ligue 1 champions: 1995–96 Chamois Niortais

Championnat de France amateur Group C winners: 2009–10 Championnat National runners-up: 2011–12 France U19

UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship winners: 1996