Laurent Robert

Montpellier

Robert played with the Réunion team that were French youth cup winners when he was 13, and league champions a year later. At 16, he moved to mainland France to play for Brest. Six months into his spell, the Breton club filed for bankruptcy, and he moved to Auxerre in December 1991. Shocked by the cold, he moved on one week later to Montpellier, so he could be with fellow Réunionnais goalkeeper Claude Barrabé; he was transported by former Montpellier player Fleury Di Nallo when Auxerre manager Guy Roux was absent. On 20 January 1996, Robert scored his first professional goal in a 2–0 home win over Martigues, having asked manager Michel Mézy to bring him on as a substitute to take the free kick. He came off the bench for the final 15 minutes on 11 February as his team were losing 2–0 at Paris Saint-Germain, and assisted the first goal and scored the winner in a 3–2 victory that would cost his future employer the league title.

Paris Saint-Germain

After scoring 11 goals in 32 games in 1998–99, Robert was close to a transfer to Marseille, but backed out when manager Rolland Courbis said that his strategy was to rotate all of his players, including French internationals Robert Pires and Christophe Dugarry. He then signed for PSG, who had finished the previous season in 9th. Robert continued his reputation for free kicks at PSG, where he shared responsibilities with Éric Rabésandratana. On 4 May 2000, he netted one in a 3–0 home win over Montpellier…

Robert appeared nine times for France, making his debut against Northern Ireland on 18 August 1999, as a 55th-minute substitute in a 1–1 draw. He was the first person from Réunion to play for France. He scored his only goal for his country on 15 November 2000 in a 4–0 win over Turkey, again off the bench in another away friendly. Robert was selected in the France team that won the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Korea and Japan. He started in the 1–0 loss to Australia in the second group game, for which a completely new squad was picked by manager Roger Lemerre.

After his retirement from football, Robert returned to his former club, Montpellier, where he began working as a forward coach within the clubs academy and women's section. A position he left in July 2020.

Robert was born in Saint-Benoît, Réunion. His father was a local footballer, who shared his reputation for free kick goals. His younger brother Bertrand was also a footballer, and also began his career at Montpellier before spending most of it in Greece. His son Thomas signed for Airdrieonians in Scottish League One in 2020. He is the brother of Fabien Robert.