Maxime Le Marchand (born 11 October 1989) is a French 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 plays as a

centre 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 ...

for club Strasbourg.

Career

Youth career

Le Marchand was born in the port city of

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

in Brittany and began his youth football career with his hometown club,

. In 2000, he joined the prestigious youth academy of Rennes. Upon arriving at the club, Le Marchand initially joined as a left-sided midfielder, but eventually moved to the

left-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 ...

role. After ascending the youth ranks, he added the

left winger 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 ...

position into his arsenal often playing both positions in dual roles. Between 2006 and 2008, he was frustrated by injuries to his ankle, but was still able to celebrate Rennes's capturing of the under-18 championship for the 2006–07 season, and the

Coupe Gambardella The Coupe Gambardella is a French football cup competition held between the under-18s of the French football clubs, organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). The cup is regarded as an opportunity for young hopefuls to showcase their s ...

in 2008 alongside his Rennes teammates

Yann M'Vila Yann Gérard M'Vila (born 29 June 1990) is a French professional footballer who plays for Super League Greece club Olympiacos. He operates primarily as a defensive midfielder, and is described by his former club as a player who possesses "excel ...

, Damien Le Tallec, and

Yacine Brahimi Yacine Nasreddine Brahimi (born 8 February 1990) is a professional footballer who plays for and captains the Qatari club Al-Gharafa and the Algeria national team. He plays as an attacking midfielder and a winger and is described as "technical ...

Le Havre

Following the 2008–09 season, Le Marchand signed his first professional contract, agreeing to a three-year deal with Rennes. Though he was contracted to Rennes, he was not inserted onto their senior team and, instead, sent on loan to Ligue 2 club

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...

to receive regular playing time. At Le Havre, he was assigned the number 21 shirt. On 7 August 2009, he made his professional first team debut in the club's 1–1 Ligue 2 away draw with Sedan, playing the entire match. He scored his first competitive goal for the club's first team, on 30 August 2009, in their 1–1 Ligue 2 away draw with

Vannes Vannes (; br, Gwened) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic Era The name ''Vannes'' comes from the Veneti, a seafaring Celtic people who live ...

. After a successful season on loan with Le Havre, on 23 June 2010, Le Marchand signed permanently for the club.

Nice

on 25 June 2015, Le Marchand joined Ligue 1 club

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

On 8 August 2015, he made his competitive debut for Nice in their opening match of the 2015–16 Ligue 1 season, playing the entire match in the 2–1 home loss to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Seven days later, he scored in the 42nd minute to register his first competitive goal for Nice in the 3–3 Ligue 1 away draw with Troyes. On 2 November 2017, Le Marchand scored an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

three minutes into second-half added time in the

2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 14 September and ended on 7 December 2017. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League knockout phase, knockout phase of the ...

1–0 loss to

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, causing Nice to slump to their sixth straight defeat in all competitions.

Fulham

On 12 July 2018, Le Marchand signed for newly promoted

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 Fo ...

side Fulham. He joined

Royal Antwerp Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before ...

on loan until the end of the season on 1 February 2021.

Strasbourg

On 26 August 2021, he left Fulham to join Strasbourg.

Career statistics

Honours

Fulham * EFL Championship play-offs:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Marchand, Maxime 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Saint-Malo Footballers from Brittany French footballers Men's association football defenders Stade Rennais F.C. players Le Havre AC players OGC Nice players Fulham F.C. players Royal Antwerp F.C. players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Premier League players English Football League players Belgian Pro League players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in England French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in England