Philippe Brunel (born 28 February 1973) 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 le ...

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 was a midfielder or playmaker with a wide range of passing.

Career

Lens

Brunel began his career at

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 ...

in 1991. From then until 1995, he made 27 appearances for the club, scoring one goal before moving to

FC Gueugnon Football Club Gueugnonnais (commonly called Gueugnon ) is a French association football club based in Gueugnon, Burgundy. The club was formed in 1940 and plays its home matches at the Stade Jean Laville located within the city. The club has ...

on a year-long loan in 1995. He made 34 appearances and scored 4 goals for Gueugnon; upon the completion of his loan, he returned to Lens. Upon his return, Brunel featured much more prominently in the Lens squad; over five years from 1996 to 2001, he played 131 times and scored 8 goals 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 ...

. He contributed 33 appearances as his side won 1997–98 French Division 1. The following season he played as a substitute in the final as they won the 1998-99 Coupe de la Ligue. He also featured in the club's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

campaign in the 1999–2000 season, making two appearances - a 1–2 defeat to 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 25 November 1999 in the home leg of the 3rd-round tie, and the 1–4 victory in the away leg.

Marseille

Brunel's performances for Lens earned him a free transfer in 2001 to

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 ...

, however as with his time at Gueugnon his Marseille career did not go to plan; having made only 11 appearances for his new club, he was transferred in January 2002 to

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

for £880,000.

Lille

During the second half of the season, Brunel made a further 11 appearances for Lille, scoring once, in addition to two appearances in the UEFA Cup - both legs of the last-16 tie with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

on 21 and 28 February 2002. From then until 2005, he would make a total of 118 appearances for Lille and score 16 goals in the process; in 2005 he was transferred to

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy Soc ...

, however he made only 28 appearances in two years with the club before leaving for

Angers SCO Angers Sporting Club de l'Ouest, commonly referred to as Angers SCO or simply Angers (), is a French professional football club based in Angers in Pays de la Loire in western France. The club was founded in 1919 and plays in Ligue 1, the first ...

in 2007. While at Sochaux he played as a substitute as they won the

2007 Coupe de France Final The 2007 Coupe de France Final was a football match held at Stade de France, Saint-Denis on 12 May 2007, that saw FC Sochaux-Montbéliard defeat Olympique de Marseille in a penalty shoot-out. After normal time and extra time could not separa ...

. The game finished 2-2 and went to penalties, and Brunel scored his penalty in the shootout as his side emerged victorious.

Angers

Over four years with Angers, Brunel scored 10 goals in a total of 99 league appearances in

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 ...

; having featured regularly until 2010 but not made a single appearance in the 2010–11 season, he retired from professional football and moved into amateur football with

AS Valence Olympique de Valence (formerly Association Sportive Valence), simply known as Valence, is a French association football club based in the town of Valence, Drôme. It was founded in 2005 following the demise of ASOA Valence and folded in 2014 bu ...

in the summer of 2011.

Career statistics

Honours

Lens * Division 1: 1997–98 *

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 ...

: 1998–99 Lille *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Sochaux *

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 ...

: 2006–07

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunel, Philippe 1973 births Living people Men's association football midfielders French men's footballers Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 3 players RC Lens players FC Gueugnon players Olympique de Marseille players Lille OSC players FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players Angers SCO players