Lamine Gassama (born 20 October 1989) is a Senegalese 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 plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Swiss club Lausanne-Ouchy and the Senegal national team.

Career

Early career

Gassama grew up in the neighbourhood of

La Castellane La Castellane is a neighbourhood in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille, France. Built as a Modernist council estate in the 1960s for French refugees of the Algerian War of 1954–1962, it is now home to about 7,000 residents, many of whom are s ...

in the city of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

. He began his career playing for

FC Martigues Football Club de Martigues, known as FC Martigues or just Martigues, is a French professional football club which plays in the Championnat National, the third level of football in France. The club plays at the Stade Francis Turcan, which has a ...

, just north of his hometown. After spending two years in the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

, he returned to Marseille and joined local club

Aubagne FC Aubagne Football Club is a French Association football, football club located in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône. History Aubagne was created in 1989 as the merger of three French clubs, ''L'entente Aubagnaise'', ''SO Charrel'', and ''Jeunesse Spo ...

. There, he caught the attention of

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 joined the club's academy the following year.

Lyon

Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Gassama was promoted to the first-team squad participating in Lyon's pre-season tour. He appeared in all five matches including starts against

Nîmes Olympique Nîmes Olympique (commonly referred to as simply Nîmes) is a French association football club based in Nîmes. The club was founded on 10 April 1937 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football. Until November 2022, t ...

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

, and

AS Nancy Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy, Grand Est and located in Tomblaine, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently ...

. On 2 September 2008, it was announced by Lyon that Gassama had signed a professional contract keeping him with the champions until 2011. He made his professional football debut on 29 October 2008 against

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard (; commonly referred to as FCSM or simply Sochaux) is a French association football club based in the city of Montbéliard. The club was founded in 1928 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of Frenc ...

starting in the

position. The match resulted in a 2–0 victory with Gassama playing the full 90 minutes. Gassama made seven league appearances, and also made his debut in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

starting Lyon's final group stage match against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, with his primary responsibility being to contain fellow Frenchman and the much more experienced

Franck Ribéry Franck Henry Pierre Ribéry (; born 7 April 1983) is a French former professional footballer who primarily played as a winger, preferably on the left side, and was known for his pace, energy, skill, and precise passing. Ribéry has been des ...

. The matchup, in the end, was unquestionably in Ribéry's favor, as Lyon lost the match 2–3 with the French talisman being involved in two of Bayern's goals and Gassama being substituted out in the 64th minute.

Lorient

On 26 January 2012, Gassama joined

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 ...

on a free transfer, after Olympique Lyonnais decided not to extend his contract.

Lausanne-Ouchy

On 11 July 2022, Gassama signed with Lausanne-Ouchy in Switzerland.

International career

Gassama made no appearances with any of France's youth squads. However, due to his performances with Lyon, he received a surprise call-up to the under-21 squad, who were looking to start fresh after their elimination from the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 compe ...

, for a friendly against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. He made his under-21 debut in that match starting the match in the right back position before being subbed out in the 82nd minute. France would go on to win the match 1–0. In May 2011, it was confirmed that Gassama would be representing

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

at senior international level. He made his debut on 10 August 2011 in a 0–2 friendly home defeat against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. In May 2018 he was named in Senegal's 23-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Individual

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

Team of the Tournament:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gassama, Lamine 1989 births Footballers from Marseille Black French sportspeople French sportspeople of Senegalese descent French sportspeople of Guinean descent Senegalese people of Guinean descent Citizens of Senegal through descent Living people French footballers France youth international footballers France under-21 international footballers Senegalese footballers Senegal international footballers Association football fullbacks Olympique Lyonnais players FC Lorient players Alanyaspor footballers Göztepe S.K. footballers CE Sabadell FC footballers FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy players Ligue 1 players Süper Lig players Primera Federación players Swiss Challenge League players 2011 CAF U-23 Championship players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Senegalese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Spain Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland