Damien Le Tallec

Early career

Le Tallec was born in Poissy. He began his career at Le Havre joining the club at only five years of age. He spent a full decade at the club and began drawing interests from several clubs in Ligue 1. He eventually joined Stade Rennais.

Rennes

Le Tallec quickly established himself at the club joining fellow prospects Yann M'Vila, Yohann Lasimant, Abdoul Camara, and Yacine Brahimi as the club's most promising players. The foursome were particularly instrumental in the club's successes on the youth level, helping their age groups win the 2006 edition of the under-16 Tournoi Carisport, as well as capturing the under-18 championship for the 2006–07 season, and also winning the Coupe Gambardella in 2008, scoring an impressive eight goals in seven matches. In the Coupe Gambardella final against Bordeaux, he scored the final goal in the team's convincing 3–0 victory. Following the 2006–07 season, on 11 August, Le Tallec, alongside teammates M'Vila and Camara, signed his first professional contract, agreeing to a three-year deal. He spent the entire season in the reserves, before being officially promoted to the senior squad and assigned the number 22 shirt for the 2008–09 season. Though on the first-team, Le Tallec began the season with the club's Championnat de France amateur team. He appeared in 22 matches, scoring four goals, helping the side finish 1st among professional clubs in their group, thus qualifying for the playoffs, where they lost to…

Le Tallec has featured for all of France's national youth teams, beginning with the under-15 team, earning his first selection in March 2006. He was a member of the under-17 team that reached the semi-finals at the 2007 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, before losing to England. He scored two goals in the tournament, both of them in the same game against Germany. He later played with the same under-17 team at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup held in South Korea. Le Tallec appeared in all five matches, scoring four goals, one against Haiti, a brace against Tunisia in the Round of 16, and one against Spain whom defeated France on penalties in the quarterfinals. In total with the under-17s, Le Tallec scored 14 goals in 18 appearances. With the under-19 team, Le Tallec appeared in 15 matches, scoring 6 goals. He scored three of those goals during the qualification process for the UEFA U-19 Championship against the Republic of Ireland, Liechtenstein, and Romania. The victory over Romania assured qualification to the tournament. At the tournament, held in Ukraine, Le Tallec appeared in all four matches, helping France reach the semi-finals before suffering defeat to England. In 2019, Le Tallec started the process of applying for Russian citizenship, and said he would be honoured if he were to be called up to the Russia national team after the process was complete. In April 2020, he was granted permanent residency in Russia before receiving Russian citizenship in October.…

On 24 April 2024, Le Tallec was appointed as an advisor to the chairman of the board of the Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg, responsible for partnership and scouting in Europe, Africa and the Near East.

Le Tallec is the younger brother of Anthony Le Tallec, and cousin of Florent Sinama Pongolle.