Florent Laville (born 7 August 1973) 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 played as a defender.

Club career

Born in

Valence, Drôme Valence (, ; oc, Valença ) is a commune in southeastern France, the prefecture of the Drôme department and within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhône, about south of Lyon, along the railway line ...

, Laville spent the first ten years of his career with

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 ...

, and helped them win the

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 ...

title in 2002 and 2003 as well as the

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. Laville signed with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in 2003 and instantly slotted into the first team, forming a successful defensive partnership with

Guðni Bergsson Guðni Bergsson (born 21 July 1965) is an Icelandic former professional footballer and former president of the Icelandic Football Association from 2017 to 2021. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the Premier League for Tott ...

, despite a sending off in a memorable game against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. He later signed permanently for Bolton, but a serious leg injury suffered several games into the 2003–04 season, against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, put him out of action for over a year and effectively ended his top-level playing career as he struggled to regain fitness. After leaving Bolton at the end of the 2004–05 season, Laville eventually returned to fitness and briefly played for

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

before returning to France, reuniting with former Bolton teammate,

Pierre-Yves André Pierre-Yves André (born 14 May 1974 in Lannion, Côtes-d'Armor) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent most of his career playing for Bastia, and retired after the club suffered relegation to the French thi ...

SC Bastia Sporting Club Bastiais ( co, Sporting Club di Bastia, commonly referred to as SC Bastia or simply Bastia) is a Corsican association football club based in Bastia on the island of Corsica. The club plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of Football ...

. His contract expired at the end of the 2006–07 season and he subsequently retired.

International career

Laville represented

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Honours

Lyon *

: 2001–02, 2002–03 *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

References

External links

* 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Valence, Drôme Footballers from Drôme French men's footballers Men's association football defenders France men's under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for France Ligue 1 players Premier League players Olympique Lyonnais players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players SC Bastia players French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England {{France-footy-defender-1970s-stub