Péguy Luyindula

Péguy Makanda Luyindula (born 25 May 1979) is a retired French footballer.

Club career

Early career

Luyindula began his career at Niort and in his first professional season scored eight goals where he caught the eye of Strasbourg. He joined Strasbourg in 1998 and went on to score 19 league goals in 85 matches. Luyindula also helped Strasbourg in capturing the 2001 Coupe de France. During this time he earned a reputation as one of the hottest prospects in French football.

Lyon

Luyindula continued his progress up the football ladder after coming to the attention of French giants Lyon. In January 2002 he completed a £5.5m transfer to Lyon and continued his good form scoring 6 goals and helping Lyon win the French League. He remained at Lyon for the next two season winning two more League Championships. He had his most productive season in 2003–04 as he scored 16 league goals helping Lyon to the Ligue 1 title.

Marseille

Following the club record sale of Didier Drogba for £24 million to Chelsea, Marseille set their sights on Luyindula as a replacement. Although Luyindula expressed his desire to remain at Lyon and despite their recent success the club still suffered from financial troubles and a sale looked probable. Eventually he completed a £7.5m move to l'OM.

He quickly found himself out of favour at the Vélodrome, in spite of being the club's best goalscorer for 2004–05. Loaned out to AJ Auxerre, where he reunited with his former Lyon coach Jacques Santini, during the 2005–06 season, Luyindula failed to convince the club to keep him on a permanent basis. In the summer of 2006, he thus moved back to Marseille and found himself on the fringes of the first team, before another loan move materialized, this time to Spanish club UD Levante.

Luyindula at Camp des Loges

Paris Saint-Germain

Luyindula didn't last long in Spain. Following six months during which he saw little first team action, he terminated his deal with the Spanish side to move to Paris Saint-Germain, again on loan. He debuted for the French capital club on 10 February 2007, and netted his first goal two months later against Le Mans, in a crucial game for the battle against relegation. Before the season ended, he scored two more against the likes of Toulouse and Nantes to keep PSG in the top flight.

In the summer of 2007, the Parisian club purchased Luyindula on a definite basis. The club endured a horrendous 2007/08 campaign, only avoiding relegation on the last day of the season. Luydindula scored just 5 goals during the whole season, and became something of a hate figure among PSG fans.

The 2008–09 season proved to be much more positive for the Kinshasa-born forward. With the arrival of no less than four attacking reinforcements (Ludovic Giuly, Guillaume Hoarau, Stéphane Sessègnon and Mateja Kežman) in the summer, Luyindula lost his spot in the starting line-up. However, he was often used as a supersub, especially in UEFA Cup games, and appeared to play better without the pressure of being an automatic starter. He scored twice in a 4–0 win over Dutch club FC Twente in December 2008, which qualified the Parisian club for the following round of the UEFA Cup.

In September 2009, Luyindula signed a two-year extension to his deal with the club, this tied him to the club until 2012. During the 2011/12 campaign Luyindula had a falling out with manager Antoine Kombouare and as a result was relegated to the reserve side. He was reinstated to the first team under new manager Carlo Ancelotti but only appeared in one League Cup match in 2012. During his time with PSG Luyindula played in 180 official matches and scored 37 goals.

New York Red Bulls

Luyindula training with New York Red Bulls in 2013

In December 2012 it was reported that Luyindula would be terminating his contract with PSG to sign with New York Red Bulls.^[1] New York officially announced Luyindula's signing with the club on 19 March 2013.^[2] Luyindula scored his first goal for his new club on July 13 against Montreal Impact. In his first year with New York Luyindula appeared in 22 league matches and scored 1 goal and was second on the team in assists with 7. During the season he started to play as a central midfielder and was instrumental in New York capturing the MLS Supporters' Shield on the last day of the season as he assisted on three of the clubs goals in a 5-2 victory over Chicago Fire. In his second season with New York Luyindula was a key figure in helping the club reach the league playoffs as he appeared in 26 league matches scoring 5 goals. He was a key player for New York during the MLS playoffs assisting on two goals in the teams come from behind 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City in the play-in match, and scoring two goals in New York's series aggregate victory of 3-2 over rivals D.C. United which sent the club to the Eastern Conference final.^[3]

International career

He was capped six times and scored his lone goal for the France national team in a 2004 friendly match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2009, Luyindula briefly revived his international career by starting two games on the right-wing against Lithuania in France's 2010 World Cup Qualification campaign.

Career statistics

Club career

¹Includes appearance in Trophée des Champions

International goals

Under–21

Scores and results list France U21's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	20 January 1999	Stade des Costières, Nîmes	Mexico	2 – 0	4 – 0	1999 Toulon Tournament
2.				3 – 0
3.				4 – 0
4.	14 June 1999	Stade Parsemain, Istres	Argentina	1 – 0	1 – 2	1999 Toulon Tournament
5.	16 June 1999	Stade Mayol, Toulon	Mexico	2 – 0	3 – 2	1999 Toulon Tournament
5.	25 April 2000	Stade Pierre Brisson, Beauvais	Slovenia	4 – 0	5 – 1	Friendly
6.	16 August 2000	Torpedo Stadium, Moscow	Russia	1 – 1	1 – 1	Friendly
7.	3 September 2000	Stade Francis-Le Blé, Brest	Israel	1 – 0	3 – 0	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier
8.				2 – 0
9.	6 October 2000	Stade Francis-Le Blé, Brest	Austria	1 – 0	2 – 1	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier
10.	28 February 2001	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv	Israel	3 – 2	4 – 3	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier
11.	24 April 2001	Feine Sorgen Arena, Ried im Innkreis	Austria	1 – 0	1 – 1	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier
12.	6 October 2001	Stade Francis-Le Blé, Brest	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1 – 0	1 – 0	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier
13.	16 April 2002	Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Como	Italy	3 – 0	3 – 2	Friendly
14.	21 May 2002	Charmilles Stadium, Geneva	Belgium	2 – 0	2 – 0	2002 European Under-21 Football Championship

Senior team

Scores and results list France's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	18 August 2004	Stade de la Route de Lorient, Rennes	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1 – 0	1 – 1	Friendly

Honours

Club

RC Strasbourg

• Coupe de France: 2001

Olympique Lyonnais

• Ligue 1: 2002, 2003, 2004
• Trophée Des Champions: 2002, 2003

Paris Saint-Germain F.C.

• Coupe de la Ligue: 2008
• Coupe de France: 2010

New York Red Bulls

• MLS Supporters' Shield: 2013

Individual

• UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month (3): January 2005, April 2007, January 2009

References

1. ↑ "Luyindula vers New York" (in French). www.lequipe.fr. Retrieved 18 December 2012. 
2. ↑ "Red Bulls sign Peguy Luyindula". www.newyorkredbulls.com. Retrieved 19 March 2013. 
3. ↑ "Luyindula picks right time to shine". www.mlssoccer.com. Retrieved 9 November 2014. 

External links

• Ligue 1 profile
• lequipe.fr profile
• PSG profile
• footballdatabase.eu
• MLS player profile