Lilian Thuram

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Lilian Thuram
Personal information
Full name Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien
Date of birth January 1, 1972 (age 34)
Place of birth Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Height 1.85 m (6' 1")
Position Defender
Club information
Current club FC Barcelona
Number 21
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1991-1996
1996-2001
2001-2006
2006-Present		 Monaco
Parma
Juventus
Barcelona		 173 (9)
201 (1)
192 (1)
National team**
1994- France 126 (2)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of May 8, 2006.
** National team caps and goals correct
as of October 11, 2006.

Lilian Thuram (born Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien, January 1, 1972 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France) is a French professional football defender, the most capped player in the history of the France national team. He has played at the top division level for over 15 seasons, including ten in Italy's Serie A. With the French national team, Thuram won the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2000.

Before Thuram pursued a football career, he aspired to be a Roman Catholic priest, until he found that he wanted to make use of his football talents. [1]

Contents

[edit] Club career

Thuram's football career began with Monaco of the French Ligue 1 in 1991. Later stops included Parma (1996-2001) and Juventus (2001-2006) in the Italian Serie A championship. He won the 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).

He signed with Spanish club FC Barcelona in 2006.

[edit] International career

For France, Thuram has appeared in 123 international matches and holds the record for the most capped player for France since June 2006, when he broke Marcel Desailly's mark of 116. After becoming world champion in 1998, he was also 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 FIFA World Cup, 2006 FIFA World Cup, Euro 96, and Euro 2004.

[edit] 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 championship and Thuram earned the Bronze Ball as the third most valuable player in the tournament, being one of the key elements of his country's defence, which only conceded 2 goals in seven games.

[edit] 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 Zinédine Zidane and Claude Makélélé. Thuram earned his 116th cap for France in the World Cup finals Group G match against South Korea in Leipzig on 18 June, 2006. In that game he equalled Desailly's record number of caps, which he broke in the final group stage match against Togo in Cologne on 23 June, 2006 when getting his 117th cap. He was named the Man of the Match in his country's semi-final 1-0 victory against Portugal, coincidentally the same distinction he had earned eight years ago at the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

[edit] Political Engagement

During the French riots in November 2005, Thuram took a position against Nicolas Sarkozy, head of UMP, the conservative political party, current Interior Minister, and a candidate in France's 2007 Presidential Election. He was opposed to the verbal violence against young people that the Minister made when he talked about the "scum", and he said that Nicolas Sarkozy never lived in a suburban estate. [2]

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. [3]

[edit] Honours

Thuram was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

In November of 2006, he was named a member of the FIFPro World XI team.

Preceded by:
Hristo Stoichkov		 FIFA World Cup Bronze Ball
1998		 Succeeded by:
Hong Myung-Bo

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ UEFA Champions League - Players - Thuram. UEFA (2006-11-23). Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  2. ^ Soccer heroes blame social injustice. The Times (2005-11-10). Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  3. ^ Footballer plays political host. The Times (2006-09-07). Retrieved on 2006-12-02.

[edit] External links

France France squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Champions (1st Title) France

1 Lama | 2 Candela | 3 Lizarazu | 4 Vieira | 5 Blanc | 6 Djorkaeff | 7 Deschamps | 8 Desailly | 9 Guivarc'h | 10 Zidane | 11 Pirès | 12 Henry | 13 Diomède | 14 Boghossian | 15 Thuram | 16 Barthez | 17 Petit | 18 Leboeuf | 19 Karembeu | 20 Trézéguet | 21 Dugarry | 22 Charbonnier | Coach: Jacquet
France France squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup France

1 Ramé | 2 Candela | 3 Lizarazu | 4 Vieira | 5 Christanval | 6 Djorkaeff | 7 Makélélé | 8 Desailly | 9 Cissé | 10 Zidane | 11 Wiltord | 12 Henry | 13 Silvestre | 14 Boghossian | 15 Thuram | 16 Barthez | 17 Petit | 18 Leboeuf | 19 Sagnol | 20 Trézéguet | 21 Dugarry | 22 Micoud | 23 Coupet | Coach: Lemerre
France France squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Runners-up France

1 Landreau | 2 Boumsong | 3 Abidal | 4 Vieira | 5 Gallas | 6 Makélélé | 7 Malouda | 8 Dhorasoo | 9 Govou | 10 Zidane | 11 Wiltord | 12 Henry | 13 Silvestre | 14 Saha | 15 Thuram | 16 Barthez | 17 Givet | 18 Diarra | 19 Sagnol | 20 Trézéguet | 21 Chimbonda | 22 Ribéry | 23 Coupet | Coach: Domenech
FC Barcelona - Current Squad

1 Valdés | 2 Belletti | 3 Motta | 4 Márquez | 5 Puyol | 6 Xavi | 7 Guðjohnsen | 8 Giuly | 9 Eto'o | 10 Ronaldinho | 11 Zambrotta | 12 van Bronckhorst | 15 Edmílson | 16 Sylvinho | 18 Ezquerro | 19 Messi | 20 Deco | 21 Thuram | 22 Saviola | 23 Oleguer | 24 Iniesta | 25 Jorquera | 28 Ruben | 29 Valiente | 31 Dos Santos | 32 Crosas | 33 Jeffrén | Coach: Rijkaard
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