Étienne Didot (born 24 July 1983) is a French former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who primarily played as a

centre midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Didot made over 400 appearances in

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

playing for

Stade Rennais F.C. Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pla ...

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

, and

En Avant de Guingamp En Avant Guingamp (, en, Forward Guingamp), commonly referred to as EA Guingamp, EAG, or simply Guingamp (), is a professional football club based in the commune of Guingamp in France's Brittany region. The club was founded in 1912 and play in ...

Club career

Rennes

Born in

Paimpol Paimpol (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwest France. It is a tourist destination, especially during the summer months when people are attracted by its port and beaches. Geography The town is located in the ...

, Côtes-d'Armor, Didot began his career playing for his hometown club Stade Paimpolais, before moving to

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

in 1997. After successfully performing on the youth level, he was promoted to the senior squad during the winter break of the 2001–02 season and subsequently made his debut in a

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

match against

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

. He made his league debut just four days later against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

coming on as a substitute in a 1–2 loss. Over the next two seasons, he was slowly integrated into the side appearing in 20 matches during the 2002–03 season and making 28 appearances during the 2003–04 season. The 2004–05 season was Didot's best season to date making 33 league appearances and also scoring his first league goal against

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (commonly known as RC Strasbourg, Racing Straßburg, RCSA, RCS, or simply Strasbourg; Alsatian: ''Füeßbàllmànnschàft Vu Stroßburri'') is a French association football club founded in 1906, based in the c ...

in a 4–0 win. The club finished fourth in the league and qualified for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

, a first in the club's history. Didot's 2005–06 league campaign was partially limited due to injury. After featuring in 19 of the first 20 league matches, he was forced out of the squad after separating his shoulder. He missed two months and did not play in the league again that season. In his last appearance before suffering the injury, he scored the game-winning goal against rivals

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

in the

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

derby. After to the departure of

Olivier Monterrubio Olivier Monterrubio (born 8 August 1976) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played for FC Nantes, Stade Rennais, RC Lens, FC Sion in Switzerland, and FC Lorient. Club career Nantes Monterrubio started his ...

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

in 2007, Didot was named

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the squad for the 2007–08 season. However, despite being captain and pre-selected by

Raymond Domenech Raymond Manuel Albert Domenech (; born 24 January 1952) is a French football manager and former player. He managed the France national team from 2004 to 2010, reaching the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final. He was dismissed after their elimination from ...

to France's squad in August, the season was off par by Didot's standards, partly due to the firing of manager

Pierre Dréossi Pierre Dréossi (born 12 October 1959) is a French football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Lille OSC, FC Sochaux-Montbéliard, OGC Nice, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Cannes. He was head coach of Stade Rennais until he re ...

, who was replaced by

Guy Lacombe Guy Hubert Georges Lacombe (born 12 June 1955) is a French football manager and former professional player. Playing career Lacombe was a member of the French squad that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. ...

. Didot appeared on and off in the squad often, usually being dropped by Lacombe due to injuries and bad play. He made only 24 league appearances scoring two goals in his final season at Rennes.

Toulouse

On 18 June 2008, it was announced that Didot would transfer to Toulouse. The transfer fee was priced at €3 million. He made his debut in their opening league match against

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

losing 0–3. However, Toulouse responded by going undefeated in their next seven matches. Toulouse finished the season fifth in the standings, despite finishing 17th the previous season, and also made it to the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

with Didot making 34 total appearances and scoring two goals. On 18 April 2014, Didot signed a new three-year deal with the ''le Téfécé'' side, keeping him contracted until June 2017.

Guingamp

On 1 July 2016, Didot joined French club

International career

Didot has earned caps with all of France's youth teams beginning with the U-15s. He was a regular with the under-21 squad making 16 appearances and scoring no goals.

Personal life

Didot's brother Sylvain Didot, and his nephew Mathéo Didot also play football professionally.

References

External links

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EA Guingamp Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Didot, Etienne 1983 births Living people People from Paimpol Sportspeople from Côtes-d'Armor Association football midfielders French footballers France under-21 international footballers Stade Rennais F.C. players Toulouse FC players En Avant Guingamp players Ligue 1 players Footballers from Brittany