Pascal Olmeta (born 7 April 1961 in

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest population of any commune on the is ...

) 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

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 ...

for

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club pl ...

and Olympique Lyonnais in the 1990s. Olmeta is good friends with

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

and has played in two testimonials for the

Rest of the World Within sports and games played at the international competitive level, the Rest of the World refers to a team of players from many countries of origin that compete against a single individual or a team from a single group, such as a club or countr ...

against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

: he played in the Munich testimonial in 1998 and also

Sir Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all tim ...

's testimonial in 1999. In 2010, Olmeta played in goal for United in a charity game in aid of

Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educat ...

. He represented France in the

Beach Soccer World Cup 2001 The 2001 Beach Soccer World Championships was the seventh edition of the ''Beach Soccer World Championships'', the most prestigious competition in international beach soccer contested by men's national teams until 2005, when the competition was the ...

and was awarded the title of 'Best Goalkeeper' in the tournament.

Personal life

Olmeta is married with two daughters. In 2016, Olmeta drew criticism after video footage from 2011 surfaced showing him shooting an elephant in the head before posing "proudly" with the corpse. He defended the footage stating he had shot the animal because of overpopulation in Zimbabwe, and all income from hunting was being used to help local people.

References

External links

* Living people 1961 births Sportspeople from Bastia Association football goalkeepers French footballers France under-21 international footballers UEFA Champions League winning players Ligue 1 players INF Vichy players SC Bastia players SC Toulon players Racing Club de France Football players Olympique de Marseille players Olympique Lyonnais players La Liga players RCD Espanyol footballers Gazélec Ajaccio players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Spain La Ferme Célébrités participants French beach soccer players Beach soccer goalkeepers Footballers from Corsica {{France-footy-goalkeeper-stub