Morgan Stéphane Sanson (born 18 August 1994) 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 le ...

who plays as a

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 ...

for

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 ...

club

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, on loan from

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 Foo ...

club

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

Early life

Sanson was born in

Saint-Doulchard Saint-Doulchard () is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is on the outskirts of Bourges. History In Roman times, it was named Ampeliacum, which literally means "the vineyard hillsides", where they ...

, Cher.

Club career

Le Mans

Ahead of the 2012–13 season, Sanson was promoted to the senior team by

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Denis Zanko Denis Zanko (born 13 April 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He made over 250 league appearances for five different clubs during his playing career before becoming a coach in 1995. He we ...

and assigned the number 25 shirt. He made his professional debut on 3 August 2012 in a league match against

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, replacing

Idrissa Sylla Idrissa Sylla (born 3 December 1990) is a Guinean professional footballer who plays as a forward for the Guinea national team. He is also referred to as Waddle due to him possessing a similar style of play to Chris Waddle. Club career Le Man ...

with only ten minutes to play. He scored his first league goal on 22 December 2012 against

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 ...

in a 2–3 home loss.

Montpellier

On 12 June 2013, Sanson signed a four-year contract with

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

for a reported fee of €700,000. He made his debut for the club on 14 September 2013, in a 0–0 draw against

Stade de Reims Stade de Reims () is a French professional association football, football club based in Reims. The club was formed in 1910 and plays in Ligue 1, the top level of Football in France, having been promoted from Ligue 2 in 2017–18 Ligue 2, 2018. ...

Marseille

On 17 January 2017, Sanson joined south coast rivals

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 ...

by signing a four-and-a-half-year contract, for an initial fee estimated to be €9 million, plus €3 million in bonuses. On 5 March 2017, he scored a goal in the 56th minute in a 4–1 Ligue 1 away win against

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 ...

- his first Ligue 1 goal for Marseille. On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals away to

FC Red Bull Salzburg FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Austrian Football. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, ...

as Marseille played out a 1–2 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the

2018 UEFA Europa League Final The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, the 47th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Euro ...

which was played at the

Parc Olympique Lyonnais Parc Olympique Lyonnais, known for sponsorship reasons as Groupama Stadium, is a 59,186-seat stadium in Décines-Charpieu, in the Lyon Metropolis. The home of French football club Olympique Lyonnais, it replaced their previous stadium, Stade de ...

, and saw his team lose to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

Aston Villa

On 26 January 2021, Sanson signed for English

side

on a -year contract, for a fee believed to be £14 million, with £1.5 million in add-ons. On 3 February 2021, Sanson made his Aston Villa debut as a late substitute in a 3–1 defeat to

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

. On 4 April 2021, Sanson suffered a knee injury midway through the second half in a 3–1 victory over

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

which ended his season prematurely. On 31 August 2021, Sanson made his return from injury as one of the permitted overage players for Aston Villa U21s, in a 3–1 victory over

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

. On 22 September 2021, Sanson returned to the first team in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

tie against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

– but he was forced to leave the field before half time after a recurrence of his injury. The arrival of

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, Ge ...

as Aston Villa manager coincided with Sanson regaining fitness and he started in the Premier League for the first time in 8 months on 26 December 2021. Gerrard described how Sanson had been disappointed with the start to his English football career, but he had assured him that he was aware of his talent, despite Sanson's fleeting appearances up until that point. In newly appointed manager

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Aston Villa. After a career spent playing mostly in Spain's Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coa ...

's first match for Villa, on 6 November 2022, Sanson made his first appearance of the 2022–23 campaign, coming on as a substitute in the 90th minute as Villa defeated Manchester United 3–1. On 8 January 2023, Sanson scored his first goal for Aston Villa in a 2–1 defeat to lower league

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

Strasbourg

On 23 January 2023, Sanson joined

on loan until the end of the current season.

International career

Sanson is a France youth international having represented his nation at under-19 and under-21 level.

Career statistics

Honours

Marseille *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

runner-up: 2017–18

References

External links

Profile
at the Aston Villa F.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanson, Morgan 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Cher (department) French footballers France youth international footballers France under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Le Mans FC players Montpellier HSC players Olympique de Marseille players Aston Villa F.C. players Ligue 2 players Ligue 1 players Premier League players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England French expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers from Centre-Val de Loire RC Strasbourg Alsace players