Fabien Barthez

Toulouse

Having spotted him earlier during regional selections, Élie Baup, then head of goalkeeping at Toulouse FC, brought him into the Toulouse pre-academy in 1986. Baup gave him his debut in the national Cadets league. After two successful seasons, Barthez joined the football academy, directed by Serge Delmas. Barthez made his Division 1 debut for Toulouse on 21 September 1991, against Nancy.

Marseille

After a solid performance with Toulouse against the club during the season, Barthez became a priority transfer target and subsequently joined Marseille in 1992, winning both the French league and the Champions League in his first season at the club, keeping a clean sheet during the final in a 1–0 victory over Milan. The continental victory made him the youngest goalkeeper to win a Champions League title until Iker Casillas did so in 2000. Marseille, however, would be stripped of their domestic title, due to their involvement in a domestic match fixing scandal days before the Champions League final, and in April 1994 was officially declared relegated to Division 2 for the 1994–1995 season. He stayed with the club for the 1994–95 season, despite many offers from elite French clubs, helping Marseille to win the title. This, however, did not earn them a promotion back to Division 1 due to their massive debts and unstable financial state, directly caused by the relegation. French football's financial watchdog DNCG ruled that the club was not financially viable…

Early international career

On 26 May 1994, Barthez won his first cap for France in a 1–0 victory against Australia. Barthez was understudy to Bernard Lama at UEFA Euro 1996 – at which France reached the semi-finals – after testing positive for cannabis earlier that year; he was suspended for two months as a result. Following a later suspension to Lama instead, however, Barthez subsequently gained the number one goalkeeping position shortly after the tournament and would not relinquish it for a decade.

1998 World Cup

In the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted by his home country, Barthez conceded only two goals in seven games and won the Yashin Award as the best goalkeeper of the tournament, also placing second in the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award that year, behind José Luis Chilavert. Barthez was also well known during the tournament for letting teammate and good friend Laurent Blanc kiss his shaved head before the start of every match, supposedly for good luck. Barthez was an integral part of his national team's inaugural triumph which also made it the first time in 20 years that a host had won the World Cup. He kept five clean sheets throughout the tournament, with the only goals he conceded being a penalty in the group stage against Denmark, and another goal against Croatia in the semi-final. In the quarter-final shootout defeat of rivals Italy, he kept a clean sheet, and also saved Demetrio Albertini's penalty kick. He kept another clean sheet…

After retiring from football in 2007, Barthez began a career in motorsport in 2008. He began competing at selected events in the Porsche Carrera Cup France that year with the team SOFREV Auto Sport Promotion. He also competed at two events in the THP Spider Cup. In 2009, he raced in a number of various motorsport series such as the French GT Championship, Bioracing Series and the Caterham Sigma Cup France as well as the Porsche Carrera Cup France. He continued to race in the FFSA GT Championship in 2010 and picked up his first podium in race 1 at Dijon-Prenois. In the 2012 season, he won his first race in the FFSA series at the Circuito de Navarra in race two and finished seventh in the championship. In 2013, he was crowned French GT Champion alongside Morgan Moullin-Traffort, driving a Ferrari. In 2013, Barthez also competed in the newly re-branded FIA GT Series alongside Gérard Tonelli in the Gentleman Trophy class with SOFREV ASP, driving a GT3-spec Ferrari 458 Italia.

In February 2014, it was announced that Barthez would enter the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driving Sofrev ASP's Ferrari 458. Barthez and his co-drivers finished 29th overall and ninth in the LMGTE Am class. In 2016, Barthez formed his own sports car racing team, Panis Barthez Compétition, alongside former Formula One driver Olivier Panis. The pair entered cars in the European Le Mans Series and the Blancpain GT Series, overseen by Tech 1 Racing, before Barthez stepped down at the end of 2019.

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Fabien Alain Barthez was born on 28 June 1971 in Lavelanet, Ariège.

Connections with the rugby world

Fabien Barthez is the son of Alain Barthez, a former RCNM player. In November 2015, Barthez was due to become an honorary member of the club's Socios association. According to association president Gérard Sutra, the honor reflected Barthez's friendship with Sutra, who had played alongside his father, and the Barthez family's attachment to Narbonne. As a boy, Barthez held a rugby license and played the sport until adolescence.