Stéphane Didier Christian Sparagna (born 17 February 1995) is a French 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 plays as a defender or

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 boundarie ...

for club

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

. Sparagna is an academy graduate of French side

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

and made his senior debut for the club in August 2014, aged 19. In 2016, he joined

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 ...

outfit

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

on a season-long

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

before signing for Boavista on a permanent deal the following year. There, he spent two-and-a-half seasons before joining Vilafranquense. Sparagna also represented France at youth level and captained the France U20 team to victory in the 2015

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

, scoring the winning goal in the final in the process. He also made a solitary appearance for the U21 side.

Club career

Marseille

Having joined Marseille's academy at the age of seven, Stéphane Sparagna spent his formative years developing his game in the club's '' La Commanderie'' academy. His progression into the first team was halted in September 2013, however, when he was forced to undergo surgery following a meniscus injury to his right knee which ruled him out for several months. Upon recovery, and following the appointment of former

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

coach

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning "The Crazy Bielsa"; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. He is a forme ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, Sparagna made his noncompetitive debut for Marseille alongside fellow academy graduate Jérémie Porsan-Clemente in a friendly clash with Benfica in July 2014. He was handed his

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 ...

debut by Bielsa on the opening day of the 2014–15 season in a 3–3 draw with

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 ...

. Sparagna started the match before being substituted at half-time for Brazilian Lucas Mendes with Marseille leading 2–1. He went on to make three further appearances for the senior side during the campaign, amassing a total of 73 minutes of playing time as Marseille ended the season in fourth place. At the end of the season Sparagna signed his first professional contract with ''l'OM'', ending months of speculation linking him with a Bosman move to

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Having lost

Mathieu Flamini Mathieu Pierre Flamini (born 7 March 1984) is a French former professional footballer and environmental entrepreneur. A midfielder, he has played for French side Marseille, English sides Arsenal and Crystal Palace, Italian side Milan and Spanish ...

to Arsenal on a Bosman deal in 2008, Marseille were prompt to conclude a new deal with Sparagna in order to avoid a repeat occurrence. StephaneSparagna

Sparagna featured prominently during the pre-season and started in Marseille's 2–0 win over

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

in the annual Robert Louis-Dreyfus Trophy. He made his first competitive appearance of the 2015–16 campaign in an opening day defeat to

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,booked in the 82nd minute of the match for a foul on Herve Bazile. On 17 September 2015 Sparagna made his

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

debut in a 3–0 win over

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

side

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. Exactly three months later he made his

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 ...

debut in a 3–2 win over

side

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ...

. During the match Sparagna was booked and gave away two

penalties 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) * Penalty ...

, both of which were converted by Lakdar Boussaha. Sparagna started the new year by making his

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 ...

debut on 3 January 2016, coming on as a late substitute for the injured

Paolo De Ceglie Paolo De Ceglie (; born 17 September 1986) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back, wing-back, or as a winger. He spent most of his career with Italian club Juventus, where he won three Serie A titles, among oth ...

in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

win over Caen. He was demoted to the reserve side soon thereafter by manager Míchel, who had replaced Bielsa early in the season, and made only one more senior appearance for the campaign. Much of his absence in the second half of the season also came as a result of him suffering from

glue ear Otitis media is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear. One of the two main types is acute otitis media (AOM), an infection of rapid onset that usually presents with ear pain. In young children this may result in pulling at the ear, ...

, a condition which traps liquid behind the eardrum and affects hearing. Míchel confirmed that Sparagna had been suffering from the condition since the start of the season and had unsuccessfully undergone treatment in late 2015. In April he began a new

cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug; it is not synthesized in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzy ...

treatment but was unable to return to the pitch for fear that he would fall short of doping regulations as a result of the medication. Míchel later revealed that his reluctance to play Sparagna, despite the risks involved had he done so, ultimately contributed towards him being sacked by Vincent Labrune and

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Margarita Louis-Dreyfus (née Bogdanova; born 1 July 1962) is a Russian-born Swiss billionaire businesswoman, chairperson of the Louis-Dreyfus Group. Early life Born Margarita Olegovna Bogdanova (russian: Маргарита Олеговна Бо ...

, who at the time were the president and owner of the club respectively. Sparagna ultimately made 15 appearances across all competitions as Marseille ended the season in 13th position in Ligue 1 and as runners-up in the Coupe de France.

Loan to Auxerre

Following his lack of game time in the campaign before, Sparagna admitted during the off-season that he was considering a short term move away from Marseille in order to continue his development. On 24 July 2016,

side

announced that they had completed the signing of Sparagna on a season-long

from Marseille, with no option of purchase being included in the deal. He made his debut for the club in their opening Ligue 2 game on 30 July 2016, playing the full 90 minutes in a 0–0 draw with

. On 19 August, Sparagna was sent off in the 92nd minute of a 1–0 loss to Clermont for committing a second bookable offence. It was the first time in his career that he had been dismissed at senior club level. The Ligue 2 disciplinary committee later handed Sparagna a three-match ban for his indiscretions, included in which was a one-match suspended sentence. On 21 October, having set up

Gaëtan Courtet Gaëtan Courtet (born 22 February 1989) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Guingamp. Career Following his first campaign with Reims, Courtet was diagnosed with cancer. After successfully undergoing treatment du ...

for Auxerre's equaliser just minutes before, Sparagna netted the first own goal of his career in the 83rd minute of the match to hand

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

a 2–1 win. He made 33 appearances across all competitions as Auxerre ended the Ligue 2 campaign in 17th position, one place above the relegation play-offs, before returning to Marseille at the end of the season.

Boavista

On 19 June 2017, Sparagna signed a three-year contract with Portuguese club Boavista. It was reported that Marseille agreed to terminate Sparagna's contract prematurely in order for him to join Boavista, with the condition that they receive a percentage of any fee received by the Portuguese club for his future sale. He made his debut for the club on 27 August, starting in a 1–0 win over Desportivo Aves which saw Boavista register their first win of the season. He ultimately made 23 appearances for the campaign before his season was cut short by a knee injury which required him to undergo surgery in Marseille. A spate of injuries sidelined Sparagna for large parts of the first half of the following season and, by the turn of the year, he had made only three league appearances. He made his long-awaited return, and only other appearance for the season, on 19 April 2019 but scored an own goal to consign Boavista to a 1–0 defeat to

Tondela Tondela () is a municipality in the central Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km². History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carvalho (1876–1951) wrote of the munic ...

. That proved to be his final appearance for the club as in January 2020, having not been registered by Boavista for the

2019–20 Primeira Liga The 2019–20 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) was the 86th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. The season started on 9 August 2019 and was finished on ...

campaign, he was allowed to leave the club on a free transfer.

Vilafranquense

On 19 January 2020, having not played a single game during the first half of the campaign, Sparagna completed a free transfer to

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

side Vilafranquense where he signed a six-month deal, with the option of a further year. He scored his first professional club goal in March when he netted for his side in a 3–2 win over Porto B, snapping a three-match winless run for Vilafranquense in the process.

Red Star

On 24 August 2021, Sparagna returned to France and signed with

in the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, t ...

, the third-tier of

French football Association football is the most popular sport in France. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the cou ...

International career

Youth teams

On 7 June 2015, Sparagna captained the France U20 squad to victory in the 2015 edition of the annual

, scoring the winning goal from a

Romain Habran Romain Habran (born 14 June 1994) is a French footballer who plays as a winger for Hapoel Afula. Besides France, he has played in Belgium, Israel, and Spain. Club career Habran joined FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in 2014, on loan from Paris Saint- ...

corner Corner may refer to: People *Corner (surname) *House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places *Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States *Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia *Corner River, a tributary of ...

in the final against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. In doing so, he led France to their first victory in the tournament since 2008. Prior to scoring in the final, Sparagna had also netted from a free-kick in a 3–1 win over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the tournament's opening game. Following his success at U20 level, he was awarded his debut for France U21 on 15 November 2015 but was sent off for two bookable offences in a 2–2 draw with Macedonia.

Style of play

In the early years of his career, Sparagna was described as an athletic and combative centre-back, with his uncompromising approach to tackling drawing comparisons to the likes of

Sergio Ramos Sergio Ramos García (; born 30 March 1986) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Paris Saint-Germain and the Spain national football team, Spain nationa ...

and

Thiago Silva Thiago Emiliano da Silva (born 22 September 1984) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Chelsea and captains the Brazil national team. Considered one of the best defenders of his generation, he is known f ...

. Marseille's former director for youth recruitment, Georges Prost, described him as a real competitor capable of controlled aggression and precision.

Personal life

On 10 May 2016, Sparagna took part in the second edition of the Marseille Live Poker Tournament, a tournament hosted by the club and broadcast in conjunction with online Poker company,

Winamax Winamax is a French Gambling, gambling company. Its product offering includes online poker and sports betting. In 1999, Winamax was originally founded as video game publisher. Sponsorship Until the summer of 2015, Winamax was the main shirt spon ...

. He finished the tournament in 19th position, the highest of any of the Marseille players who took part.

Career statistics

Honours

France U20 *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

Olympique de Marseille profile
* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sparagna, Stephane 1995 births Living people Footballers from Marseille French men's footballers France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football defenders Olympique de Marseille players AJ Auxerre players Boavista F.C. players U.D. Vilafranquense players Red Star F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Championnat National players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal French expatriate sportspeople in Portugal