Philippe Violeau (born 19 September 1970) 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

defensive 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 boundari ...

. He played exclusively in France, where he won both the national championship and 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 ...

three times, as well as the

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 ...

twice and the Coupe de la Ligue once. He was president of amateur side La Roche VF from February 2019 until June 2020.

Career

Violeau was born in

Niort Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in the ...

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

. He started playing in the 1988–89 season, with his hometown club Chamois Niortais in the French second division. In 1993, Violeau moved to top-league

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or simply Auxerre (), is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division ...

, where he won the 1995–96 French Division 1, and in 1997, he was transferred to Olympique Lyonnais where he played for six seasons. In 2003, Violeau returned to Auxerre, where he retired after the 2005–06 season.

Post-playing career

In February 2019, Violeau was announced as president of La Roche VF, an amateur side from his home region. He stood down after sixteen months in the position, in June 2020.

Honours

Auxerre * French national champions: 1995–96 *

: 1995–96, 2004–05 Lyon * French national champions: 2001–02, 2002–03 * Coupe de la Ligue: 2000–01 *

: 2002, 2003 * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

References

1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Niort Men's association football midfielders French men's footballers Chamois Niortais F.C. players AJ Auxerre players Olympique Lyonnais players Ligue 1 players Footballers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine {{France-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub