Mickaël Landreau

Nantes

Born in Machecoul, Landreau graduated from the Nantes Atlantique "Centre of Excellence" in La Jonelière. His first professional match for Nantes was a 0–0 draw against Bastia on 2 October 1996 and saved the penalty from Ľubomír Moravčík. Since 1996, he remained a mainstay in the Nantes starting line-up, and consistently produced excellent performances. At age 19, Landreau became captain. He was selected to represent the France youth national team at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.

In the next ten years, he hardly missed a game, completing in July 2005 300 matches for Nantes and was an important support for his team during their successes around the turn of the millennium. Having won two consecutive Coupe de France trophies in 1999 and 2000 (captained in the 2000 final), Nantes were crowned 2001 Ligue 1 champions for the first time since 1995. In the same when Nantes won the Ligue 1, Landreau signed a new contract, keeping him until 2006. His good performance at Nantes led Landreau drew strong interest from clubs like Barcelona, Monaco, Roma, Juventus, Marseille, Manchester United and Celtic. On 11 October 2003, Landreau had an operation on his articular disk which was a serious injury in his football career. On 22 November 2003, Landreau made his return in a 3–1 win over his (first match in his career) against Bastia. In the semi-final of the 2004 French Cup, Landreau produced several saves, but to no avail as the team could not score and were…

Landreau was part of the France squad that won the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Korea and Japan. He made his debut in his only appearance of the tournament, a 4–0 win over Mexico in the final group game on 3 June. He did not play again until the 2003 edition that the team won again on home soil, taking part in a 5–0 win over New Zealand at the exact same stage at the Stade de France. At UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Landreau wore France's number one jersey despite being the third-choice goalkeeper behind Fabien Barthez and Grégory Coupet and unused in both tournaments as a result. He played half of the 12 matches in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying, but was overlooked for the final tournament in Austria and Switzerland, where Sébastien Frey and Steve Mandanda backed up Coupet. Landreau was recalled to the France national team in September 2012 by newly appointed manager Didier Deschamps for upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Finland on 7 September and Belarus on 11 September. It was his first national call-up since November 2007. He went to the finals in Brazil, as third choice behind Hugo Lloris and Stéphane Ruffier. After the tournament, he retired from club and international football at the age of 35, to spend more time with his family.

Club

International

Nantes

Division 1: 2000–01 Coupe de France: 1998–99, 1999–2000 Trophée des Champions: 1999, 2001 Paris Saint-Germain

Coupe de la Ligue: 2007–08 Lille

Ligue 1: 2010–11 Coupe de France: 2010–11 France

FIFA Confederations Cup: 2001, 2003 FIFA World Cup runner-up: 2006