Alassane Alexandre Pléa (born 10 March 1993) is a French 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 lea ...

who plays as a forward, left winger or

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

Early life

Pléa was born in

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, Nord, and grew up in

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métro ...

Club career

Lyon

Pléa made his senior debut for

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

on 7 October 2012 in an away

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

match against

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

, coming on as a substitute for Bafétimbi Gomis in the 90th minute; the match ended in a 1–1 draw.

Nice

Pléa left Lyon and joined Nice in the summer of 2014 in search of more game time in a deal worth £450,000. Under his first manager at Nice, Claude Puel, he was moved into the middle of the park and began to flourish first under Puel and then even more so under his successor

Lucien Favre Lucien Favre (; born 2 November 1957) is a Swiss professional Association football, football manager and former player who most recently managed club OGC Nice, Nice. Favre was a playmaker for various Swiss and French clubs, the longest for Serve ...

. On 20 October 2016, Pléa scored the only goal in the 1–0 away victory against Red Bull Salzburg in the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Group I match. That was Nice's first-ever UEFA club competition away win, having previously gone 15 UEFA club competition away matches without a win. 3 days later, he scored a hat-trick in a Ligue 1 match as leaders Nice won 4–2 at

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

to maintain their advantage at the top of the table at four points. On 20 February 2017, Pléa underwent arthroscopy of the right knee in

, which would likely put him out of action for five months. Eight days earlier, he had injured his right knee during the first half of a Ligue 1 match against

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

and had to be substituted in the 43rd minute. As of 21 February 2017, he was Nice's top Ligue 1 scorer and was 5th in the Ligue 1 top scorers' chart of the 2016–17 season with 11 Ligue 1 goals. Playing alongside

Mario Balotelli Mario Balotelli Barwuah (; ''Birth name, né'' Barwuah; born 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Genoa CFC, Genoa. Balotelli started his ...

, he proved much more than a wingman by notching 27 goals and nine assists across the 2016–17 and 2017–18 Ligue 1 seasons, helping Nice finish as high as third in 2016–17.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

2018–2020

In July 2018, Pléa joined

on a five-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Nice was reported as €25 million. He made his debut for the club against BSC Hastedt in the first round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

on 19 August 2018 and scored a hat-trick as Gladbach cruised to an 11–1 win. He scored his first

goal for the club on 1 September, securing a 1–1 draw away to

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

. He finished his debut

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

as the club's top scorer with 12 league goals and 15 across all competitions. The following

, Pléa was praised for adding a creative edge to his attacking output, contributing eight goals and seven assists in his first 22

appearances. In the club's match against

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

on 1 February 2020, Pléa opened the scoring and then got his first two yellow cards of the season and was sent off as Gladbach fell to a 2–2 draw after leading 2–0. On 31 May, he scored his tenth league goal of the season and provided assists for both of

Marcus Thuram Marcus Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 6 August 1997) is a French professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for Serie A club Inter Milan and the France national football team, France ...

's goals in a 4–1 victory over 1. FC Union Berlin.

2020–21 season

Pléa scored his first goal of the season in a 3–1

victory over FC Köln on 3 October 2020. On 3 November, Pléa scored a hat-trick in a 6–0 rout of Shakhtar Donetsk away in the group stage of the Champions League. The result was the club's largest victory in competition history. He scored another two Champions League goals in a 2–3 group stage loss against

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

on 1 December 2020; he was denied a hat-trick and a equalizing goal by the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

in the final minutes of the match.

2021–22 season

On 13 August 2021, Pléa scored the first goal of the

campaign in a 1–1 draw against Bayern Munich.

International career

Born in France, Pléa is Malian by descent. He is a France youth international having represented his nation at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels. He played with the under-19 team at the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship. In November 2018, Pléa was called up into the senior team for the first time after the injury-enforced withdrawal of Anthony Martial and Alexandre Lacazette for the games against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. He made his debut against the latter replacing

Olivier Giroud Olivier Jonathan Giroud (; born 30 September 1986) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Giroud began his senior club career ...

in the 80th minute of a 1–0 home win. In December 2023, he was included in a provisional list of Mali national team for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

Profile
at the Borussia Mönchengladbach website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Plea, Alassane 1993 births Living people People from Villeneuve-d'Ascq French men's footballers Men's association football wingers Wasquehal Football players Olympique Lyonnais players AJ Auxerre players OGC Nice players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Bundesliga players France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers France men's international footballers French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French sportspeople of Malian descent Black French sportspeople 21st-century French sportsmen