Olivier Monterrubio (born 8 August 1976) 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

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 ...

. He played for

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

Stade Rennais Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pl ...

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

in Switzerland, and

FC Lorient Football Club Lorient Bretagne Sud (; commonly referred to FC Lorient or simply Lorient) is a French association football club based in Lorient, Brittany. The club was founded in 1926 and currently competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French ...

Club career

Nantes

Monterrubio started his professional career at Nantes in 1996. Product of the famed "Centre of Formation" of Nantes, he was in the same crop of players such as

Mickaël Landreau Mickaël Vincent André-Marie Landreau (; born 14 May 1979) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a goalkeeper. Landreau holds the record for Ligue 1 appearances, with 618 for Nantes, Paris Saint-Germain, L ...

. He was an essential part of the squad in the 1998–99 season, and his winning penalty handed Nantes the

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 ...

title in 1999. He also scored the winning goal in the

1999 Trophée des Champions The 1999 Trophée des Champions was a football match held at Stade de la Licorne, Amiens on 24 July 1999, that saw 1999 Coupe de France winners FC Nantes defeat 1998–99 Division 1 champions FC Girondins de Bordeaux 1–0. Match details ...

and played as a substitute when Nantes won the 2000 Coupe de France Final. Finally, in 2001, Monterrubio became a

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 ...

winner with ''Les Canaries''.

Stade Rennais

In the summer of 2001, Monterrubio signed for fierce rivals

. Despite having a quiet start to his spell at the club, he became one of their key players, establishing a deadly partnership with Swiss striker

Alexander Frei Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional football coach and a former player who played as a forward. He is currently the manager of Basel. He began his career at Basel, going on to various other clubs in Switzerla ...

. In the 2004–05 season, he led

in assists while Frei was the top scorer. Such was his influence, that he has inherited the captain's armband from Cyril Jeunechamp.

Lens

In the last few hours of the January 2007

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, Monterrubio signed for RC Lens as a replacement for Olivier Thomert, who moved in the opposite direction. On 3 February 2007, he played his first Ligue 1 match for Lens against

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 ...

. During this period, he had to fight for his first team place with the Ivorian midfielder

Kanga Akalé Kanga Gauthier Akalé (born 7 March 1981) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Whilst at Auxerre he helped them win the Coupe de France in both 2003 and 2005, playing in both finals. In June 200 ...

. He struck up a strong partnership with Nadir Belhadj upon the Algerian left-back's arrival at the club in January 2008, but the team were relegated to

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 ...

at the end of the season despite Monterrubio's fine form.

Sion

Monterrubio signed a two-year contract with Swiss side

during the summer of 2008.

Lorient

On 28 June 2009, he signed a contract between 30 June 2011 with

leaving Sion after one year.

International career

Born in France, Monterrubio is of Spanish descent. In his prime, Monterrubio was among the finest players of his unique kind. Although he did not win a single national team cap, he did receive three call-ups to the France B team, scoring in all 3 of his appearances.

Style

Monterrubio was an accomplished left winger, but had also been featured as a striker and

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 ...

in the early of his career. He specialized in set-pieces, especially at

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

-taking. He led Ligue 1 in assists in 2004–05 and 2005–06 and was runner-up in 2006–07.

Honours

Nantes *

: 2000–01 *

: 1998–99, 1999–2000 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

: 1999 Sion *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

: 2008–09

References

External links

Olivier Monterrubio's profile, stats & pics
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monterrubio, Olivier Living people 1976 births People from Gaillac Sportspeople from Tarn (department) Association football wingers Association football midfielders French footballers French people of Spanish descent French expatriate footballers FC Nantes players Stade Rennais F.C. players RC Lens players FC Sion players FC Lorient players Ligue 1 players Swiss Super League players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Footballers from Occitania (administrative region)