Ferdinand Coly

Early career

Having not developed through an academy, Coly began his footballing career by joining local Nouvelle-Aquitaine side FC Libourne, who competed in the National 2 (the fourth tier of French football), for the 1993-94 season. After a year with the side, he was picked up by newly-promoted National outfit Stade Poitevin, who also offered him a civil service job in the town hall's legal department. In his first season in Poitiers, Coly helped the club once again win promotion, this time to Division 2, and was a staple in the side the following season, albeit that the club would be immediately relegated back to the National.

Châteauroux

Following Stade Poitevin's relegation, Coly returned to Division 2 by joining Châteauroux, signing his first ever professional contract with the club. During the 1996-97 season, Coly made 39 appearances for Châteauroux as they won promotion to Division 1. The following season, he made his first top flight appearance on the first matchday of the season, a away fixture against Paris Saint-Germain which his side would lose 2-0, before scoring his first Division 1 goal on 15 August in a 2-1 home loss to FC Metz. In total, Coly made 19 league appearance and netted 3 times as his side were relegated back to Division 2, and Coly remained with the club for one more season, during which he made 33 league appearances.

Lens

In the summer of 1999, Coly joined Division 1 side Lens. He was unable to play much in his first…

Coly made his Senegal debut in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification fixture against Algeria on 16 June 2000, and would go on to become a regular fixture in his birth country's national team for the next 7 years. In 2002, he represented Senegal in the African Cup of Nations and played in all of his national side's matches in the FIFA World Cup, as they reached the quarter finals. He continued representing Senegal regularly for the next five years, playing his final game for Les Lions de la Teranga in a September 2007 win over Burkina Faso in 2008 African Cup of Nations qualifying and earning a total of 43 caps for his national team.

Ferdinand Alexandre Coly was born on 10 September 1973 in Dakar, Senegal. His father, a soldier and UN peacekeeper, died in 1980, when Coly was only 7, after which his mother fell ill. Two years later, at the age of 9, Coly, alongside his younger brother Jean-Sébastien, was taken in by a French couple named Bernard and Irène Poncet, who lived in Artigues-près-Bordeaux. He grew up and was educated there, earning a baccalauréat in accounting and management at the age of 18, before enrolling at a local university to study psychology, though he would stop his studies after a year in order to pursue a career in football.