Post by Alexandra on Sept 13, 2008 15:05:37 GMT 1
Lilian Thuram (born Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien, January 1, 1972, in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, FWI) is a retired French professional football defender and is the most capped player in the history of the France national team. He has played at the top flight in France, Italy and Spain for over 15 seasons, including ten in the Serie A. With France, Thuram won the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2000. Thuram holds the record for most appearances at the European Championship, with 16. He was expected to join Paris Saint-Germain on the June 27, 2008, having agreed a year contract. However, at the press conference he instead announced the discovery of a cardiac malformation, similar to the one that cost his brother's life. A month later Thuram announced his full retirement from football due to the cardiac condition.
Club career
Thuram's football career began with AS Monaco of the French Ligue 1 in 1991. Later transfers included Parma (1996–2001) and Juventus (2001–2006) for £25 million. He won the Scudetto twice with Juventus (it was originally four times, but the club was stripped of the 2004/05 and 2005/06 titles due to the match-fixing scandal) and a UEFA Cup with Parma in 1998/99.
On July 24, 2006, Thuram signed with Spanish club FC Barcelona, where he ultimately ended his football career in August 2008.
International career
After becoming world champion in 1998, Thuram was an integral part of France's triumph at Euro 2000, which led to the team being ranked by FIFA as number one from 2001-2002. He also played in the 2002 World Cup, 2006 World Cup, Euro 96,Euro 2004 and Euro 2008.
1998 World Cup
Thuram has only scored two international goals, both of which came in one game – the 1998 World Cup semi-final against Croatia, in which France came back to win 2–1 and advance to the final. France defeated Brazil 3–0 to capture their inaugural World Cup and Thuram won the Bronze Ball as the third most valuable player in the tournament. He, Bixente Lizarazu, Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly formed the backbone of the French defence that conceded only 2 goals in seven games.
2006 World Cup
After a brief international retirement, France coach Raymond Domenech convinced Thuram to return to the French team on August 17, 2005, along with fellow "Golden Generation" teammates Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makélélé, as Les Bleus struggled to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Thuram's centre-back partnership with William Gallas was to be the foundation for France's progression to the final. Thuram earned his 116th cap for France in the group stage match against South Korea in Leipzig on June 18, 2006. In that game he equalled Desailly's record number of caps, which he broke in the final group stage match, a 2–0 win over Togo in Cologne on June 23, 2006, winning his 117th cap. He was named the Man of the match in France's semi-final 1–0 victory against Portugal, coincidentally the same distinction he had earned eight years earlier at the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup.
Euro 2008
On June 9, 2008 Thuram took the field against Romania in a group match, and became the first player to make 15 UEFA European Championship finals appearances. The former record of 14 appearances was held by Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo and Karel Poborský. He played one more game during the tournament, raising the number of his appearances to 16, which record was then equalled a few days later by Edwin Van der Sar from the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Thuram was the captain of France in the tournament. He, along with Claude Makélélé, announced his retirement from international football on June 17, 2008, after France's 2–0 loss to Italy. He finished his career with the national team as France's most capped player with 142 caps.
Political engagement
During the French riots in November 2005, Thuram took a position against Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of the conservative political party UMP and President of the French Republic. Thuram was opposed to the verbal attacks against young people that the then-Minister made when he talked about the "scum", and he said that Nicolas Sarkozy never lived in a suburban estate.
On September 6, 2006, Thuram sparked controversy when he invited 80 people, who were expelled by French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy from a flat where they lived illegally, to the football match between France and Italy. He has also engaged in campaigns that favour the Catalan language and that favour the independence of Roussillon (Catalonia Nord) from France.
Honours
AS Monaco (1991–1996)
Coupe de France: 1990/91
Parma (1996–2001)
UEFA Cup: 1998/99
Coppa Italia: 1998/99
Italian Super Cup: 1999
Juventus (2001–2006)
Serie A: 2001/02 2002/03 (2004/05 & 2005/06 titles stripped)
Italian Super Cup: 2002, 2003
FC Barcelona (2006–2008)
Spanish Super Cup: 2006
French national team (1994-2008 )
FIFA World Cup: winner 1998, runner-up 2006
European Championship: winner 2000, semi-finalist 1996
Thuram was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
In 2006, he was named a member of the FIFPro World XI team.
source: wikipedia.org
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