Téji Tedy Savanier (born 22 December 1991) 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 ...

who plays as an

attacking 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 Montpellier, of which he is the captain. Formed at Montepellier, where he only made the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in his first spell, he began his professional career at Arles-Avignon in Ligue 2. In 2015 he joined Nîmes, where he won promotion and played in Ligue 1 in 2018–19. He then returned to Montpellier. Savanier represented the France Olympic team at the 2020 games.

Club career

Early career

Formed at his hometown club Montpellier, Savanier had only played for the

when in 2011 he joined Arles-Avignon of Ligue 2. His first professional goal was his only of that season, opening a 3–0 home win over

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

on 24 September.

Nîmes

In August 2015, Savanier moved to fellow Ligue 2 club Nîmes on a one-year deal with a clause allowing a second season. Two years later, he extended his link until 2020. In 2017–18, he helped the ''Crocodiles'' to second place and promotion to Ligue 1 for the first time since 1993. He and teammates

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and

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made the league's Team of the Year at the

Trophées UNFP du football The Trophées UNFP du football are a number of awards given annually by the National Union of Professional Football Players to players playing in France's Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, as well as to managers and referees, the most prestigious one being the ...

. In 2018–19, his debut top-flight season, Savanier helped Nîmes come 9th. He led the league in assists with 14, ahead of

Ángel Di María Ángel Fabián Di María (born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Argentina national team. He can play as either a winger or attacking midfielder. Di María began his career with R ...

and

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on 11 each, and surpassed only by

Eden Hazard Eden Michael Walter Hazard (born 7 January 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for La Liga club Real Madrid. Known for his creativity, dribbling, passing and vision, Hazard is considered o ...

(15) in Europe's five largest leagues. Near the start of the season he was involved in a controversy in a 4–2 home loss to

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

in which he was sent off for a foul on Kylian Mbappé, who was also given a red card for pushing him in retaliation.

Return to Montpellier

In July 2019, Savanier returned to Montpellier for an estimated €10 million fee, a club record. He became a key part of the team under manager Michel Der Zakarian. After the retirement of 43-year-old club veteran Vitorino Hilton, Savanier succeeded him as captain of Montpellier in 2021. In December that year, he was

UNFP Player of the Month The UNFP Player of the Month trophy is an award that recognises the best Ligue 1 player each month of the season. The winner is chosen by a combination of an online public vote, which contributes to 50% of the final tally, and the players of each ...

for his two goals and two assists. In June 2022, with one year remaining of his contract, Savanier extended it to 2026. He had been of interest to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

. The 2022–23 season was his most prolific with 12 goals, starting with two on the opening day in a 3–2 home win over Troyes. He was sent off three times over the campaign; the third, in a 1–0 home win against Rennes on 23 April, earned him a three-match ban.

International career

Savanier was named as one of three overage players for the French Olympic team for the 2020 tournament in Japan. In the second group game, he scored the added-time winner in a 4–3 victory over

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. In March 2021, Savanier gave an interview to

France Bleu France Bleu is a network of local and regional radio stations in France, part of the national public broadcasting group Radio France. The network has a public service mission to serve local audiences and provides local news and content from each ...

in which he said he could equally play for

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– where his grandfather was born – as for France. He later clarified that his only wish was to play for France.

Personal life

Born in Montpellier to a Romani family, Savanier still lives with his parents in Figuerolles, a ''

banlieue In France, the term banlieue (; ) refers to a suburb of a large city. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80% of the inhabitants of the Paris Metropolitan Are ...

'' of the city. When he played for Arles, one hour away, he rented with his mother.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

December 2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

France profile
at FFF

at foot-national.com * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Savanier, Teji 1991 births Living people Footballers from Montpellier French men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Montpellier HSC players AC Arlésien players Nîmes Olympique players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players Olympic footballers for France Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics French Romani people French people of Romani descent French sportspeople of Algerian descent Romani footballers