Franck Gava (born 3 February 1970) 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 ...

who played as an

attacking 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 ...

Club career

Gava was born in

Montargis Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.< ...

. He emerged through AS Nancy-Lorraine's youth system, making his professional debuts at age 17. However, he would grow to prominence in the first division at Olympique Lyonnais, being a very valuable offensive unit alongside

Florian Maurice Florian Maurice (born 20 January 1974) is a French football executive and former professional footballer who played as a striker. He most notably won the 1998 Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue with French team Paris Saint-Germain. He play ...

. In 1997, Gava signed - alongside close friend Maurice - with capital side

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 ...

, scoring seven goals in his first season and helping the club capture both the Cup and

League cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

that year. After that, he played with

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

and Stade Rennais one season apiece, being forced to retire at 30 due to foot ailments; he did amass more than 400 official matches counting both major divisions in France.

International career

Gava collected three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in a one-year span, all in friendlies and as a substitute; the first arrived on 9 October 1996, against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

References

External links

* * *
French Football Federation profile
* 1970 births Living people People from Montargis Sportspeople from Loiret French men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players AS Nancy Lorraine players Olympique Lyonnais players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players AS Monaco FC players Stade Rennais F.C. players France men's international footballers Footballers from Centre-Val de Loire {{france-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub