Jérémy Ménez

Early career

Ménez was born in Longjumeau, Essonne. As a child, he grew up in Vitry-sur-Seine, not far from his birthplace, and supported hometown club Paris Saint-Germain. Ménez became attracted to football through his father and older brother who were football players themselves. Ménez began his career at local club CA Vitry. After a year at the club, Ménez joined the Centre de Formation de Paris, a youth sporting club designed to cater only to football players under the age of 19. While at C.F.F.P, Ménez developed and honed his technical skills and was placed into the playmaker position by his coaches. After five years at the academy, he departed the club after developing friction with the academy coaches. After leaving CFFP, Ménez joined CSF Brétigny, a local Parisian club that also trained French internationals Patrice Evra and Jimmy Briand. He spent only a year at the club before securing a move to professional club Sochaux in Franche-Comté.

Sochaux

Upon his arrival at Sochaux, Ménez entered the club's youth academy and began attending the sports department's elite high school, Vignes de Seloncourt, with ambitions of becoming an accountant. While in the club's academy, Ménez was adept both on and off the field earning good grades in school. On 24 March 2004, at the age of 16, he signed his first professional contract with Sochaux, agreeing to a three-year deal until June 2007. Upon signing the contract, he became the youngest professional football…

Youth

Ménez has earned caps with all of France's youth teams. He is a member of the group, commonly known as the Génération 1987, that produced current internationals Hatem Ben Arfa, Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri, alongside himself. Ménez made his youth international debut with the under-16 team on 11 December 2002 in a friendly against Greece, playing alongside Nasri and Ben Arfa. In the match, Ménez scored the fifth goal of a 6–1 victory. At the 2003 Aegean Cup in Turkey, he scored goals in three consecutive matches. Ménez scored goals against Ukraine and Israel and netted his final goal in the third-place match against Belgium. At the Montaigu Tournament, Ménez scored three goals, second-best on the team behind Ben Arfa. He scored a goal in the team's 8–0 win over Gabon in the team's opening group match and, in the following match, scored the opening goal in the team's 3–0 win over Russia. In the team's final group stage match against England, Ménez netted another goal in a 3–1 victory. At a regional tournament in Salerno, Italy, Ménez led the team to the title by scoring a double in the final match against the hosts. He also scored two goals in the group matches against Japan and Finland. Ménez finished the under-16 campaign with 14 appearances and a team-leading 12 goals. With the under-17 team, Ménez, Ben Arfa, and Nasri were joined by Karim Benzema and tasked with the goal of winning the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Championship on home soil. Ménez made his…

Club

International

Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ménez goal.

He has two children: a daughter, Maëlla (born 2012) and a son, Menzo (born 2014). Their mother, Émilie Nef Naf is the winner of the third season of reality TV show Secret Story.