Nicolas Sébastien Frey (born 6 March 1984) is a French 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 ...
who played 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 ...
.
Club career
Born in
Thonon-les-Bains
Thonon-les-Bains (; frp, Tonon), often simply referred to as Thonon, is a subprefecture of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2018, the commune had a population of 35,241. Thonon-les-Bains is ...
,
Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Ann ...
, Frey played exclusively at amateur level in his country, joining
AS Cannes
Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 3, t ...
' youth system at the age of 10 and spending two seasons with its
reserves as a senior. In 2004, aged 20, he moved to Italy with
A.C. Legnano
Associazione Calcio Dilettantistica Legnano, commonly referred to as Legnano, is an Italian football club based in Legnano, Lombardy.
Founded in 1913, Legnano played three seasons in Serie A and a total of eleven seasons in the top tier of the It ...
, in
Serie C
The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C.
The unification of the Lega Pro ...
.
After one year, Frey signed for
Serie B
The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...
club
Modena FC
Modena Football Club 2018, commonly referred to as Modena, is an Italian football club based in Modena, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1912, and refounded in 2018, and had spent the majority of its existence playing in Serie B. They ar ...
, being an important first-team member during his spell and totalling 62 league games in his last two years. In the summer of 2008, he joined
A.C. ChievoVerona
Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, ...
in a
co-ownership deal along with
Angelo Antonazzo, in exchange for
Salvatore Bruno and
Michele Troiano
Michele Troiano (born 7 January 1985) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Club career
Troiano started his career at native club Monza. He then joined Modena F.C. in Serie B. In January 2007, then Serie A team ...
. He made his
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...
debut on 5 October 2008 in a 0–2 home loss against
ACF Fiorentina, and finished
his debut campaign with 21 league matches as the
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
side retained their division status.
On 17 July 2009, Chievo signed Frey on a permanent basis. During his spell with the club, he often shared right-back duties with
Gennaro Sardo.
Frey returned to the
second division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
on 31 January 2018, with the 33-year-old being loaned to
Venezia FC. After initially leaving Chievo at the end of
2018–19, he rejoined the team on a one-year contract on 6 September 2019.
Personal life
Frey's older brother,
Sébastien
Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of pasté Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', ...
, was also a footballer. A
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
, he too was brought up at Cannes, and also played most of his career in Italy, mainly with
Parma F.C.
Parma Calcio 1913 (), commonly known as Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie B, the second tier of Italian football.
''Parma Football Club'' was originally founded in Decembe ...
and Fiorentina.
His father, Raymond, was a professional goalkeeper, while his
grandfather
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic ...
André
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...
was a defender who played several years with
Toulouse FC, reaching the
France national team as Sébastien.
References
External links
Chievo Verona official profile
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Nicolas
1984 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Haute-Savoie
French footballers
Association football defenders
AS Cannes players
Serie A players
Serie B players
Serie C players
A.C. Legnano players
Modena F.C. players
A.C. ChievoVerona players
Venezia F.C. players
French expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Italy
French expatriate sportspeople in Italy
Footballers from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes