Jérôme Rothen

For other uses, see Jerome (disambiguation).
Jérôme Rothen

Rothen in 2007
Personal information
Full nameJérôme René Marcel Rothen
Date of birth31 March 1978
Place of birthChâtenay-Malabry, France
Height1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Playing positionWinger
Club information
Current team
Caen
Number25
Youth career
1983–1988AS Meudon
1988–1991Versailles
1991–1994INF Clairefontaine
1994–1997Caen
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1997–2000Caen98(11)
2000–2002Troyes46(4)
2002–2004Monaco82(5)
2004–2010Paris Saint-Germain139(10)
2009–2010PSG B team3(0)
2009→ Rangers (loan)4(0)
2010→ Ankaragücü (loan)12(0)
2011–2013Bastia60(7)
2013–Caen8(1)
National team
2003–2007France13(1)
2008France B2(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10:52, 11 August 2013 (UTC).
† Appearances (Goals).

Jérôme René Marcel Rothen (French pronunciation: ​[ʒeʁom ʁoˈtɛn]; born 31 March 1978) is a French footballer who plays as a winger for Caen. His grandfather originated from the Alsace region.

Rothen has won 13 caps for the French national team.[1] He represented his country at the 2004 European Football Championship and won the FIFA Confederations Cup with France in 2003. In club competition, Rothen won the Coupe de France once and the Coupe de la Ligue twice with Paris Saint-Germain. He also won the Coupe de la Ligue with Monaco. Rothen is a skilled winger who specialises in free kicks, crossing and passing.

Club career

Early career

Rothen underwent training at the famous Clairefontaine National Football Academy in France.[2]

SM Caen

He started his career with SM Caen.

Troyes

He then played for Troyes AC under Alain Perrin.

AS Monaco

He was brought to AS Monaco on 1 January 2002 for €5 million. Rothen was one of the stars of the Monaco side that reached the 2004 final of the Champions League, in May 2004.

Paris Saint-Germain

Rothen playing for PSG in 2009.

A native of the Paris metropolitan area, he fulfilled a childhood dream when he signed for the capital side Paris Saint-Germain in 2004 for €11 million. He rejected lucrative offers from more powerful European clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea F.C. and Valencia C.F. in order to join PSG, the club he supported during his youth.

In the French capital, his dream soon turned sour. Often injured, Rothen appearead in only 18 league games and 2 Champions League fixtures in his debut season. 2005-06 was equally disappointing. Under the orders of Laurent Fournier and then Guy Lacombe, the left winger struggled to reproduce the kind of displays that had made him famous at Monaco. Often injured, he nonetheless took part in a Coupe de France win over fierce rivals Olympique de Marseille.

In the second half of 2006, returning from injury, Rothen found himself cast aside by Guy Lacombe. In December 2006, he faked an injury in order to organize a transfer deal that would materialize during the January transfer window. He was then tipped to join Lille OSC, but then learned about Lacombe's imminent sacking from Paris Saint-Germain. The arrival of new coach Paul Le Guen in January 2007 convinced him to stay put. Gradually, he began to recover his best form. With the club battling against relegation, Rothen's revival was one of the factors that enabled PSG to save their spot in the top flight.

In the summer of 2007, several clubs expressed interest for the midfielder, including champions Olympique Lyonnais, who were looking for a replacement for the outgoing Florent Malouda. Rothen stayed in Paris, and following a great start to the 2007-08 season, was voted as the league's player of the month in September. He regained a spot in the French national football team and even netted a free-kick on 13 October 2007 against the Faroe Islands.

In 2007-08, Paris Saint-Germain struggled even more than the previous season. In such a context, Rothen became an increasingly important player due to his creativity and crossing ability. Such was his importance to the club that French media would describe PSG as "dependent upon Rothen" and "playing a game that is excessively left-sided", the flank which the player occupied. During those years, several signings like Sergey Semak, Bonaventure Kalou and Williamis Souza were made with the aim of reducing the side's dependence on Rothen and introduce some kind of creative threat on the right flank too. None of these solutions worked, and PSG continued to rely upon Rothen to pull them out of the relegation trap in May 2008.

2008-09 was his last season in Paris. He managed to make 34 league appearances, his best tally in a single season since 2003-04 in Monaco at AS Monaco. However, he had lost much of his importance to the club, with the arrival of other creative players such as Stéphane Sessègnon and former Monaco team mate Ludovic Giuly. In the summer of 2009, Paul Le Guen left the club to be replaced by Antoine Kombouaré, who deemed Rothen surplus to requirements and banished him to the reserves squad.

Rangers

On 1 September 2009 Rothen agreed to join Scottish Premier League club Rangers on a one-year loan deal from PSG.[3] He made his debut for the club on 12 September 2009 against Motherwell. He made his first appearance in the Champions league for Rangers in their 1–1 draw away to Stuttgart.

Ankaragücü

After going back to France Rothen's relationship with Rangers soured and the club were looking to move Rothen on, as he was deemed surplus to requirements, rather than pay his salary for the remainder of the season when it looked like he would not figure in the squad.

Rothen flew to Turkey on 22 January 2010 to sign a six-month loan deal with Ankaragücü after rejecting advances from Greek sides Larissa, Kavala and Iraklis. On 29 January 2010, he signed a six month contract with Ankaragücü.

Bastia

Almost a year after Paris resigned his contract, Rothen signed in May 2011 a two-year contract with the Corsican club of SC Bastia, newly promoted to the French Ligue 2.[4] Rothen made his team debut on 29 July 2011 against Istres, and Bastia won the match 3-1.[5] He won the Ligue 2 title with the team in the 2011-12 season and was selected as the Ligue 2 Player of the Year.

Return to Caen

In July 2013, Rothen rejoined his first senior club, SM Caen.[6]

International career

Rothen made his debut on 29 March 2003 against Malta.[7]

He was a member of the French national squad at Euro 2004, where he made a brief substitute appearance in their defeat by Greece in the quarter-finals. Rothen's was not selected in the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad for France. He was recalled to the squad for Euro 2008 qualifying and, on 10 October 2007, marked his comeback with a superbly taken free-kick against the Faroe Islands.

Autobiography

On 8 October 2008, Rothen published his autobiography You're Not Going To Believe Me. The book has generated significant attention in the media, notably for its description of an incident concerning Zinédine Zidane, his former teammate in the France national team.

According to Rothen, the incident occurred during the second leg of Monaco's 2004 Champions League quarter-final win over Real Madrid. Monaco had overturned a 4–2 first leg deficit, and were 3–1 up with seconds left to play when Zidane tackled Rothen from behind. "It was a foul and I went down, admittedly I made a bit more of it, but anyone would have done the same, as we were trying to buy some seconds," Rothen wrote. "Zidane leant over me and said: 'Get up, you son of a bitch.'"[8]

The expression Rothen claims Zidane used, 'fils de pute', is a variation on what Marco Materazzi is alleged to have said to Zidane before the head-butt that proved the iconic moment of the 2006 World Cup final. "I was surprised but put it down to his frustration, and I expected him to apologise at the end of the game, but he said nothing," Rothen continued. "I thought the next time we saw each other with the France team he would say sorry, and then it would be forgotten, but he didn't and that disappointed me." [9]

In a subsequent interview with the French newspaper L'Equipe, Rothen stated he did not intend to smear Zidane's image by publicizing the incident. He also denies having received pressure from the latter's camp to remove the offending passage, as had been reported in the press.[10]

Career statistics

Club

As of 11 August 2012.[11]
Team Season League[nb 1] Cup[nb 2] Europe[nb 3] Total
Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists Apps Goals Assists
Caen 1997–98 233030----2630
1998–99 375320----3953
1999–2000 383610----3936
Total 98119600000114119
Troyes 2000–01 304580----3845
2001–02 160820-12213029
Total 464131000122168614
Monaco 2001–02 111140----1511
2002–03 3741850----42418
2003–04 34012301121649119
Total 8253112011216106638
Paris Saint-Germain 2004–05 181620-2002216
2005–06 281950----3319
2006–07 272651-4013636
2007–08 323881----4048
2008–09 343750110124949
Total 1391036251116121801339
Paris Saint-Germain B 2009–10 100------100
Total 100000000100
Rangers 2009–10 40-10-301801
Total 400100301801
Ankaragücü 2009–10 1200------1200
Total 12000000001200
Paris Saint-Germain B 2010–11 200------200
Total 200000000200
Bastia 2011–12 3247312---3559
2012–13 2839000---100
Total 607163120003659
Career total 4143510457344341151441119

International

As of 13 October 2007.[12]

National teamSeasonMatchGoalsAssists
France 2003300
2004400
2005401
2006000
2007210
Total1311

Honours

Club

Troyes
Monaco
Paris Saint-Germain
Bastia

France

France

Individual

Notes

  1. ↑ Includes Ligue 1, Ligue 2, Scottish Premier League and Süper Lig
  2. ↑ Includes Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophée des champions, Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup and Turkish Cup
  3. ↑ Includes UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Supercup

References

  1. ↑ "Jérôme Rothen". National Football Teams. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  2. ↑ "INF, formateur de talents" (in French). FFF. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  3. ↑ "Rangers tie up Rothen deal" BBC Sport website (1 September 2009)
  4. ↑ "Rothen : «Signer à Bastia, c'est magnifique»" France Football website (27 May 2011)
  5. ↑ "Bastia 3-1 Istres" (in French). Ligue de Football Professionnel. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "Jérôme ROTHEN : "Un challenge très excitant "" (in French). Stade Malherbe Caen Official website. 8 July 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  7. ↑ France 6–0 Malta FFF.Fr
  8. ↑ Ben Lyttleton, "Why is Zizou so riled about a PSG winger's autobiography?", The Guardian, 1 October 2008
  9. ↑ Jérôme Rothen, «You're Not Going To Believe Me», Peoplestar.tv, 7 October 2008
  10. ↑ "Rothen :«Pas voulu salir Zidane»", L'Equipe, 6 October 2008, Retrieved on 6 December 2008.
  11. ↑ Footballdatabase.eu statistics (English) Retrieved of 8 March 2012.
  12. ↑ Jérôme Rothen at National-Football-Teams.com
  13. ↑ "Flourishing foursome exciting in France". FIFA. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  14. ↑ "Palmarès Trophées UNFP - Oscars du football - Equipe-type de Ligue 1; 2003" (in French). Sport Palmares. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  15. ↑ "UEFA Champions League assisted statistics of the 2003-04 season". UEFA. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  16. ↑ "Jérôme Rothen élu joueur de février" (in French). Sport.fr. 18 March 2003. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "Résultat du trophée du mois de septembre 2007!" (in French). Footballeurspros.fr. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  18. ↑ "Jérôme Rothen, enfin !" (in French). SC Bastia.net. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012.

External links

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