Nathaël Antoine Julian Julan (19 July 1996 – 3 January 2020) was 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 played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He represented Guingamp in

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 ...

, and

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 cl ...

and

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a s ...

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 ...

Career

On 30 June 2016, Julan signed his first professional contract with

, for three years. On 4 August 2017, in the first round of the

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

at home to Nîmes Olympique, he scored twice in a 4–4 draw and the winning strike in the subsequent penalty shootout. After registering three goals and an assist in 14 games over the first half of the season, Julan joined

club Guingamp on a 3-year deal on 31 January 2018. On 10 January 2019, he joined

side

, until the end of the season. Eight days later on his debut, he scored to open a 1–1 draw at Châteauroux. In the last match of his life on 30 November 2019, Julan scored both goals, as Guingamp's reserves beat leaders C'Chartres 2–1 at home in the Championnat National 2.

Personal life and death

Julan was born in

Montivilliers Montivilliers ( or ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region in northern France. Geography A large light industry, light industrial and farm ...

, Seine-Maritime, and he was of Guadeloupean descent. On 3 January 2020, Julan died in a car accident in his

Audi Q5 The Audi Q5 is a series of compact luxury crossover SUVs produced by the German luxury car manufacturer Audi from 2008. The original first-generation (''Typ 8R'') model was the third member of the ''B8'' family to be released after the Audi A ...

Pordic Pordic (; ; Gallo: ''Pordic'') is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016 the former commune of Tréméloir merged into Pordic.1996 births 2020 deaths People from Montivilliers Road incident deaths in France Footballers from Seine-Maritime French men's footballers Black French sportspeople French people of Guadeloupean descent Men's association football forwards Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players Le Havre AC players En Avant Guingamp players Valenciennes FC players {{France-footy-forward-1990s-stub