Hugo Lloris

Early career

Lloris started playing football at the age of six at CEDAC (Centre de Diffusion et d'Action Culturelle), a local cultural center based in the neighborhood of Cimiez, Nice. The centre offered a variety of activities, which included football. Lloris played a variety of positions at the centre, such as in the attack, before switching to the goalkeeper position after coaches noticed that he possessed impressive goalkeeping qualities, such as ball-handling and catching skills. Lloris excelled at the position and caught the attention of former Nice goalkeeper and French international Dominique Baratelli, who recommended that the player join his former club. At the age of ten, Lloris joined Nice's youth academy. He spent several years in the club's youth academy and was the starting goalkeeper for the club's under-17 team that won the 2003–04 edition of the Championnat Nationaux des 18 ans, a country-wide domestic league competition for players under the age of 18.

Nice

After success with the club's under-18 team, Lloris was promoted to the club's reserve team in the Championnat de France Amateur, the fourth level of French football, for the 2004–05 season. He alternated the starting goalkeeper spot with Hilaire Munoz as he appeared in 12 matches. Lloris was promoted to the first team squad ahead of the 2005–06 season and assigned the number 1 shirt. He was designated by manager Frédéric Antonetti as the team's starting goalkeeper for the club's…

Youth

Lloris has been active on the international front with France, first appearing with the under-18 team making his debut on 11 March 2004 in a friendly match against Germany. He later played with the under-19 team and was part of the winning team at the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. Lloris appeared in all five matches the team played in the competition. He made only five appearances with the under-21 team, primarily because of his commitments to the senior team. On 11 October 2008, with the under-21 squad attempting to qualify for the 2009 European Under-21 Championship, coach Erick Mombaerts called up Lloris to the team for their important two-legged playoff against Germany, despite him having been called up to the senior team and the player having last played for the team in August 2007. Lloris honored the call up and started the second leg. With France seconds away from a spot in the tournament, because of the team's 1–1 draw in the first leg, Germany got a late goal from Benedikt Höwedes. The 1–0 loss eliminated France from the competition and also ended Lloris's under-21 career.

Senior

Early career

Lloris received his first call-up to the senior national team for France's 6 February 2008 match against Spain. However, he instead played for the B team in their friendly match against the Congo DR, held the day before the Spain friendly. After receiving several more call ups in 2008, he finally earned his first cap on 19…

Lloris is described as a goalkeeper who "boasts lightning reflexes and good decision-making" and is "a formidable opponent in one-on-one situations". Lloris also "commands his box well". His playing style, and in particular his speed when coming off his line to anticipate opponents and clear the ball, has led him to be described as a sweeper-keeper in the media. Lloris has been described as an "acrobatic shot-stopper," due to his athleticism in goal, and is considered to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world, as well as one of France's greatest goalkeepers ever, with his former Tottenham manager José Mourinho even describing him as "the best in the Premier League" in 2020. He also as a strong positional sense. He was less adept at stopping penalties, however. While he has been described in the media as being comfortable with the ball at his feet and generally reliable in his passing, he has also come into criticism due to some high-profile errors he has made in his entire career, which often resulted in goals, mainly due to his poor distribution and decision making when attempting to play out from the back. Moreover, while he is considered to be strong in one-on-one situations, and adept at claiming high balls, his ability to deal with crosses effectively has occasionally come into question in the media; he has also been accused of being inconsistent, and has frequently struggled with injuries throughout his career. Notwithstanding his reputation for being prone to…

Hugo Hadrien Dominique Lloris was born on 26 December 1986 in the Mediterranean city of Nice to an upper-class family. His French mother was a lawyer and his father is a Monte Carlo-based banker of Catalan Spanish descent. He has a younger brother, Gautier, who played for his older brother's former club Nice as a central defender. As a youth, like his international and club teammate Yoann Gourcuff, Lloris excelled at tennis and played the sport up until the age of 13. He was among the top players in his age group, ranking high in the country's national standings before opting to focus on football. Lloris studied at the Lycée Thierry Maulnier in Nice until 2004.