Sébastien Frey (born 18 March 1980) 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

. Frey began his club career in France with

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

in 1997. He went on to spend most of his career in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, playing for

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

, and

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. He ended his career in 2015, after two seasons with Turkish side

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

. At international level, he represented the

France national football team The France national football team () represents France in men's international Association football, football. It is controlled by the French Football Federation (FFF; ), the governing body for football in France. It is a member of UEFA in Euro ...

on two occasions between 2007 and 2008 and was an unused member of the squad that took part at

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

Club career

Cannes

Frey began his career with French side

AS Cannes Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed in 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 2 ...

in 1997, at the age of 17. On 20 September 1997, he made his professional league debut, playing as a starter in a 1–1 home draw against

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

. At the end of the 1997–98 season, Frey made 24 league appearances and took Grégory Wimbée's starting goalkeeping spot in the first team.

Inter Milan

Following two promising seasons at Cannes, Frey began to attract attention from abroad, most noticeably from

whom had been notified of his exceptional talents by former keeper

Walter Zenga Walter Zenga (; born 28 April 1960) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, currently club manager at Serie C club Siracusa. He is regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one of Italy's best ...

and

rivals

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. Eventually, he opted to join Inter. At Inter in earlier season, he was the third goalkeeper behind Andrea Mazzantini and

Gianluca Pagliuca Gianluca Pagliuca (; born 18 December 1966) is an Italian football coach and former professional goalkeeper. He is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one of Italy's best keepers ever. Throughout his ...

until Mazzantini was sold to

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, making Frey as second choice goalkeeper. On 21 March 1999, Frey finally made his debut for the club against

. Frey also made an appearance against Sampdoria when he was put on instead of Pagliuca at 70 minutes on the score (and final) 4–0. He ended the season with a total of seven league appearances for Nerazzurri.

Loan to Verona and return to Inter Milan

In the summer transfer window of 1999, Frey moved on loan to

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

, where he played thirty league appearances and helped the team in order to avoid relegation. The following year, he returned from loan to play for Inter, as the club sold Angelo Peruzzi for cash and Marco Ballotta. At Inter, Frey was recalled in view of his performance with Verona and Inter, and in the 2000–01 season, he became the youngest goalie in the Lombard team's history, and the first foreigner to move from Inter to this post. He also participated in the preliminary round of the Champions League. His exemplary behavior, his maturity and dedication to the club propel him on rare occasions to be the team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. However, the team played below expectations, and the club decided to make several changes to the squad; after the arrival of

Francesco Toldo Francesco Toldo (; born 2 December 1971) is an Italian retired Association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation. In a ...

from Fiorentina, Frey was placed on the transfer list.

Parma

Following Toldo's transfer to Inter, Frey was forced to find a new club. He was transferred to

in the summer of 2001, for 8 billion lire cash plus

Sérgio Conceição Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição (; born 15 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who mostly played as a right winger. Throughout his career, he played for ten teams in five countries. After gain ...

(Conceição was tagged for 32 billion lire,Parma AC SpA Report and Accounts on 30 June 2002
CCIAA
/ref> Inter's official site claimed the cash was 10 billion lire), or 40 billion lire with whom he won the 2001–02 Coppa Italia. Frey was the replacement for

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is ...

who was sold to Juventus for a transfer fee of 100 billion lire in the same window. The transfer fee was the world-record goalkeeper's transfer fee at that time. It was a difficult task for Frey to replace Buffon. His experience in Parma was positive and provided ample opportunity for Frey to demonstrate his talent and justify the trust placed in him by the club. He became a key element of the squad and regularly played in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. Frey won the 2001–02 edition of the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

with Parma, leading the club to win the title for the third time since 1992; however, Frey never played in the tournament with

Cláudio Taffarel Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (; born 8 May 1966) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the current goalkeeping coach of both club Liverpool, and the Brazil national team. Taffarel began his senio ...

preferred for the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. In the 2002 Supercoppa Italiana, however, Frey started in goal against Juventus, but could not help his team to avoid losing 2–1 to the league champions. In June 2005, Parma avoided relegation to Serie B against Bologna, thanks to Frey and his outstanding performance. Despite his attachment to the club, an economic concern of the latter to balance its budget meant Frey had to be sold. Frey joined Fiorentina for the 2005–06 season, after four seasons with Parma, on the a loan with an option to be.

Fiorentina

Frey joined Fiorentina on loan for the 2005–06 campaign, and signed a permanent deal with the club for €6 million (€5.6M went to Parma) at the end of the year following a glittering season where he formed the backbone of the team along with Cristian Brocchi,

Stefano Fiore Stefano Fiore (; born 17 April 1975) is an Italian Association football, football manager and former player, who played as an attacking midfielder or on the winger (association football), right wing. He was in charge as manager technical area of ...

, and

Luca Toni Luca Toni (; born 26 May 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competition ...

. After a positive first half of the season for him and his team, on 10 January 2006, during a match in the Coppa Italia against Juventus, he received a blow after a conflict with

Marcelo Zalayeta Marcelo Danubio Zalayeta (; born 5 December 1978) is a Uruguayan former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. Zalayeta began his club career with Danubio F.C., Danubio before movi ...

. Due to the clash, Frey received blunt trauma to the tibia, which ruled him out of the starting line-up for several months, forcing the club's sporting director Pantaleo Corvino to hire a replacement, which turned out to be Romanian keeper Bogdan Lobonț. On 15 May 2006, the Florentine officials announced the outright purchase of Frey, buying him for an amount equal to €6 million. In the new season Frey regained his starting spot in goal, after an initial physiological problems due to long stop regains fitness. On 13 December 2007, Frey suffered a meniscus injury during training, and underwent knee surgery the next day. He returned for Fiorentina's 2–1 victory over Parma on 13 January 2008, after being sidelined for one month, and his outstanding play was rewarded with a contract extension. Fiorentina reached the semi-finals of the

that season. In the

2008–09 Serie A The 2008–09 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier Italian football, the 77th in a round-robin tournament. It began on 30 August 2008 and ended on 31 May 2009, with the announcement of the ...

season, Frey conceded less than a goal per game, conceding only thirty-one goals in thirty-eight matches. On 2 November 2010, Frey injured his knee during training, suffering an

Anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

, ruling him out for the rest of the season.

Genoa

In 2011, Frey joined

on a five-year deal on a free transfer after falling out of favour with Fiorentina and being replaced by the newly signed Artur Boruc, who had joined the club from

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

the previous season. The move turned out to be a failure as Genoa was moving backwards and was ever present in the relegation zone. Frey left after 2 years and was replaced by

Mattia Perin Mattia Perin (; born 10 November 1992) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for club Juventus FC, Juventus. Perin began his career with Genoa in 2010, and, asi ...

. Before joining Genoa, Frey revealed talks with French spenders PSG during the summer transfer window, but the capital side eventually acquired Palermo goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu instead. Frey also revealed that German side

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

was keen to sign him in the past.

Bursaspor

On 15 July 2013, Frey joined Turkish club

for an undisclosed fee. After he failed to make an appearance during 2014–15 season, his contract was mutually terminated on 9 July 2015, and Frey subsequently retired from professional football. He confirmed his farewell from the club with an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

message on 15 July 2015, stating his gratefulness for his spell at club.

International career

Frey received his first call-up for

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

for a match against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in November 2004, but did not make an appearance. He earned his first cap in France's final

qualifier against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

on 21 November 2007. The match ended in a 2–2 draw after he erred on

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian former Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player. Shevchenko is considered one of the greatest Striker (association football), strik ...

's equalising goal. He was a member of France's Euro 2008 finals squad. On 20 August 2008, Frey announced his retirement from international football at the age of 28 to focus on his club career.

Style of play

Known for his leadership, composure, mentality, strength of character, personality, and consistency, Frey was regarded as one of the best Serie A goalkeepers of his generation throughout his career. A dynamic and agile keeper, who was highly regarded for his acrobatic shot-stopping and aerial ability, he was known in particular for his reactions and his athleticism in goal, as well as his positional sense, speed and ability to rush out in one on one situations, although he was less effective at coming off his line to claim crosses, and performed better between the posts; a former outfield player in his youth, in addition to his goalkeeping abilities, Frey also possessed reliable ball skills and distribution with his feet.

Personal life

Frey's grandfather,

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as well in Portugal ...

, was a French international footballer, and his father, Raymond, was also a professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His younger brother,

Nicolas Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

, played as a defensive midfielder for

team Chievo. Frey is a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(

Soka Gakkai is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religion led by Minoru Harada since December 2023 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Buddhist priest Nichiren. It claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhist group ...

), and credited former Fiorentina legend

Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio (; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. He is the former pr ...

as one of his spiritual mentors.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Parma *

: 2001–02 Individual * Guerin d'Oro: 2000 *

ACF Fiorentina Hall of Fame This is a list of ACF Fiorentina players who have been inducted into the club's Hall of Fame. History and regulations ACF Fiorentina's Hall of Fame has been launched in 2012, resulting from a collaboration between ACF Fiorentina and Museo Fiorent ...

: 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Sebastien 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Thonon-les-Bains Footballers from Haute-Savoie French men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers AS Cannes players Inter Milan players Hellas Verona FC players Parma Calcio 1913 players ACF Fiorentina players Genoa CFC players Bursaspor footballers Ligue 1 players Serie A players Süper Lig players France men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey French Buddhists Nichiren Buddhists 21st-century Buddhists Converts to Sōka Gakkai 21st-century French sportsmen