Grégory Arnolin (born 10 November 1980), known simply as Grégory, is a former professional footballer who played as a central defender. Born in France, he represented the Martinique national team internationally.

Club career

Arnolin was born in Livry-Gargan, Seine-Saint-Denis. At the age of 16 he signed a

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...

contract with Paris Saint-Germain F.C. but, during his spell at the club, he never played for the first team. In the summer of 2001, after a loan to Red Star FC, Arnolin's contract with PSG ran out and he became a free agent. He was quickly acquired by semi-professionals

Villemomble Sports Villemomble Sports is a French association football, football club based in Villemomble (Seine-Saint-Denis). Founded in 1922, it currently plays in the Championnat de France Amateurs (French fourth-tier league), holding home games at the ''Stade G ...

(also in Paris, competing in the

fourth division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

) but, however, never appeared in a league match for the side, and in the summer of 2002 was released. Arnolin then moved to Portugal, to play for

F.C. Pedras Rubras F.C. Pedras Rubras is a Portugal, Portuguese Football (soccer), football club from the town of Pedras Rubras, a parish of Maia, Portugal, Maia, in the region of Greater Porto. Brief history Founded in 1942, the club is seen as a good formation ce ...

in the third level. After solid performances he attracted attention from bigger clubs in the country, and eventually signed his first professional contract with

Gil Vicente FC Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese football club that plays in Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of football in the country, and it is named after the Portugues ...

, in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

. In his second season he scored an impressive seven league goals for the Barcelos team, catching the eye of

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

-based C.S. Marítimo and signing a two-year deal in late May 2006; after only missing one league game in his debut campaign, he played second-fiddle in the second (15 appearances). On 12 June 2007, British sports channel Sky Sports reported that Arnolin was preparing to sign for West Bromwich Albion of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

, after manager Tony Mowbray made it clear that the player was one of his summer transfer targets. The player's agent, former footballer Rudi Vata, said to the Birmingham Mail:

"There is a good possibility that Grégory will join West Bromwich but there are still issues to be resolved. We should know more at the end of this month when people are back from holiday and all focus switches towards pre-season. I think there is a big chance he will be a West Bromwich player next season. He is well aware of how close they were to playing in the Premiership and the club's ambitions match his own. What we don't know yet is whether it would be a transfer for about £400,000 or a loan move – that is one of the issues we have to discuss".

However, nothing came of it and Arnolin remained in Marítimo. On 7 June 2008, he signed for another Portuguese team, Vitória de Guimarães, as he was also applying for Portuguese citizenship – during his spell in the country, he began being addressed by his first name. On 24 June 2009, Grégory moved to Sporting de Gijón, on a three-year link. In only his third game for the

Asturians Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic- Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who w ...

he netted through a header, as 10-men Sporting levelled 2–2 at Valencia CF with just four minutes to go. Grégory's importance at the club became gradually less important, and he only appeared in 14 league games in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, in

division two NCL Division Two The NCL or National Conference League Division Two (known as the Kingstone Press NCL Division Two) League winners {, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" , - , colspan=4 style="text-align:center;" , NCL DIVISION TWO , ...

. On 24 August 2014, after brief spells in Portugal with F.C. Paços de Ferreira and

Atlético Clube de Portugal Atlético Clube de Portugal is a Portuguese club, located in the city of Lisbon, more precisely in the parish of Alcântara. It was founded on 18 September 1942 due to the merger of two clubs of Alcântara (Carcavelinhos Football Club) and Santo ...

, he was drafted by FC Goa to play in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League; he retired at the age of 36, and later worked for Portuguese sports agency ProEleven.

International career

In June 2013, aged nearly 33, Grégory was called up by Martinique for the

2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition began on 7 July 2013 at the ...

. He made his debut in the tournament's opener, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 win against Canada.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnolin, Gregory 1980 births Living people People from Livry-Gargan French people of Martiniquais descent Footballers from Seine-Saint-Denis French footballers Martiniquais footballers Association football defenders Red Star F.C. players Villemomble Sports players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Gil Vicente F.C. players C.S. Marítimo players Vitória S.C. players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Atlético Clube de Portugal players La Liga players Segunda División players Sporting de Gijón players Indian Super League players FC Goa players Martinique international footballers 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players French expatriate footballers Martiniquais expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in India French expatriate sportspeople in Portugal French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in India Martiniquais expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Martiniquais expatriate sportspeople in Spain Martiniquais expatriate sportspeople in India