Ludovic Joseph Obraniak (; born 10 November 1984) is a football manager and 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 ...

. He primarily played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

. Born in France, he played for the Poland national team. He was appointed to his first head coach position, with French

Championnat National 3 The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football league system behind ...

side

Le Touquet Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (; pcd, Ech Toutchet-Paris-Plache; vls, 't Oekske, older nl, Het Hoekske), commonly referred to as Le Touquet (), is a commune near Étaples, in the Pas-de-Calais department, northern France. It has a population of 4, ...

in June 2021.

Club career

Metz

Obraniak began his football career with his local club

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

. Due to his consistent play in the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the senior side by then-manager

Jean Fernandez Jean Fernandez (born 8 October 1954) is a French professional football manager and former player. He has previously managed Metz and Marseille, where France national team star Franck Ribéry saw him as a mentor. He managed Auxerre for five yea ...

making his debut during the 2003–04 season in a 2–0 loss to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

coming on as a late-match substitute wearing the number 13 shirt. Over the next two years, Metz showed their inconsistent play finishing 16th in 2004–05 and finishing dead bottom of the table in 2005–06, thus being relegated. Obraniak was the primary bright spot in the squad appearing in 61 matches and scoring three goals over those years. With Metz in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

, several Ligue 1 clubs drew their interest over to Obraniak. Despite this, he still played half the season in Ligue 2 with Metz appearing in 20 matches and scoring two goals. The following winter would see his departure. After weeks of silent negotiating, Metz finally came to an agreement on 23 January 2007 with the

Nord-Pas de Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-C ...

-based side

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional football club based in Lille, Hauts-de-France that competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French football. Lille has played its ...

. Metz received €1.2 million, as well as the Swiss striker

Daniel Gygax Daniel Gygax (born 28 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Gygax earned 35 caps for the Swiss national team, playing at two European Championships and the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Career Gygax was born ...

Lille

Obraniak agreed to a four-year contract keeping him with the club until 2010. He made his debut with Lille four days later coming on substitute in a match against Bordeaux. He played in every remaining match that season, making on and off starts and substitute appearances. With Lille playing 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 ...

that season, he appeared in both legs of their knockout stage match against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. The following season, Obraniak had a solid season appearing in 35 matches and scoring two goals, though Lille finished out of Europe in the league standings. For the 2008–09 season, he got off to a fast start scoring 7 goals in only 16 appearances contributing to Lille's 5th-place position heading into the winter break. In later seasons, he was not a regular starter and decided to leave the club. He was however instrumental in helping Lille win the Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double in the 2010-11 season. In the 2011 Coupe de France Final he came on as a substitute for

Moussa Sow Moussa Sow (born 19 January 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward. Born in France, he represented Senegal at international level, scoring 18 goals in 50 appearances. He was known for his bicycle kick goals and emotional reac ...

and scored the winning goal to give Lille a 1–0 win over

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 ...

Bordeaux

On 12 January 2012, Obraniak signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Ligue 1 outfit

. In February, he scored two goals in a 5–4 away win against his former club Lille, including the winning goal in injury time.

Werder Bremen

In January 2014, Obraniak left France for the first time of his career and moved to German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

. He signed for two and a half years until summer 2016 and the transfer fee was believed to be €2 million. Prior to his decision for Werder, he consulted fellow Frenchman

Johan Micoud Johan Cédric Micoud (born 24 July 1973) is a French former professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder. He was considered a skilled midfielder and a dead-ball expert. During a 16-year career he played professionally, o ...

who have had a great spell in Bremen in the 2000s. However, his time in Bremen did not become a success. After his signing he was a regular for eight matches but then he apparently lost favor with head coach

Robin Dutt Robin Dutt (; born 24 January 1965) is a German football coach, executive and former player. He is the manager of Austrian club Wolfsberger AC. Early life Dutt was born and brought up in Germany, the son of a German mother and Indian Bengali fat ...

. Following Dutt's sacking in October 2014 he raised vainly hopes of improving his situation, also being left out of the squad in almost official matches under new coach

Viktor Skrypnyk Viktor Anatoliyovych Skrypnyk ( uk, Віктор Анатолійович Скрипник; born 19 November 1969) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer and current manager of Vorskla Poltava. As a player, he helped Werder Bremen to the ...

Çaykur Rizespor

In January 2015, he was loaned to Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Çaykur Rizespor Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the TFF First League. The club was founded on May 19, 1953, with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team ...

for the remainder of the season. Bremen granted them also a buy-out option for summer 2015. He made his league debut against

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

on 25 January 2015.

Maccabi Haifa

On 27 August 2015, he signed for

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

giants

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football ...

, After passing a medical test, he signed a two-year contract worth €400,000 per year. On 12 September, Obraniak made his debut against Bnei Sakhnin FC. On 24 May 2016, he scored the winning goal in the 2015–16 Israel State Cup final, against

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

. On 17 August 2016, Obraniak was released from Maccabi Haifa after one year.

Retirement

On 4 October 2018, he announced his retirement as a player from football.

International career

Obraniak made an appearance for the France under-21 squad; however, since it was not a match for points FIFA did not consider him permanently capped. This was later confirmed by FIFA's decision to remove the age limit on nationality switches of players who had only been capped at youth level. Due to having Polish roots through his grandfather, Zygmunt Obraniak who was from

Pobiedziska Pobiedziska (german: Pudewitz) is a town in Poznań County, Poland, with 8,209 inhabitants as of the year 2004. It is also the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Pobiedziska. The town's name comes from the word ''pobieda ...

Poznań County Poznań County ( pl, powiat poznański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ref ...

, the player became the subject of interest from the

Poland national football team The Poland national football team ( pl, Reprezentacja Polski w piłce nożnej) has represented Poland in men's international tournaments football competitions since their first match in 1921. The team is controlled by the Polish Football Associ ...

and applied for

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

of the country. Since his grandfather had never renounced Polish citizenship, according to Polish laws Obraniak's citizenship did not need to be granted by the Polish government but simply verified by the Masovian

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

. Obraniak was confirmed as a Polish citizen on 5 June 2009. On 23 July 2009, he was officially called up to the Poland team by coach

Leo Beenhakker Leo Beenhakker CM (; born 2 August 1942) is a Dutch international football coach. He has had an extensive and successful career both at club and international level. He led both Ajax and Feyenoord to Dutch championships and also had domestic s ...

for the squad's friendly against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, where Obraniak scored both goals in the match making a 2–0 victory for Poland. He played in all three games for Poland at

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

Managerial career

Obraniak was appointed head coach of

on 5 June 2021.

Personal life

Obraniak's daughter was born on 1 June 2011. Obraniak is fluent in French and English. Despite representing Poland on an international level, he does not speak Polish fluently.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Obraniak goal''.

Honours

Club

Lille *

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 ...

: 2010–11 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

: 2010–11 Bordeaux *Coupe de France: 2012–13 Maccabi Haifa *

Israel State Cup The Israel State Cup ( he, גביע המדינה, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involve ...

: 2015–16

Individual

*Coupe de France Final Man of the Match:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

External links

Lille OSC Profile
* *
National team stats
on the website of the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( pl, Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej; PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the Polish Cup and the Polish national footb ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Obraniak, Ludovic Living people 1984 births Sportspeople from Moselle (department) Polish footballers Poland international footballers Polish football managers French footballers France under-21 international footballers French football managers French people of Polish descent Polish people of French descent Citizens of Poland through descent Association football midfielders UEFA Euro 2012 players Lille OSC players FC Metz players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players SV Werder Bremen players Çaykur Rizespor footballers Maccabi Haifa F.C. players AJ Auxerre players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Bundesliga players Israeli Premier League players Footballers from Grand Est Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Israel Expatriate footballers in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Israel French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Israel Polish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey