Willy Grondin (born 12 October 1974) 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

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 ...

Career

Nantes

Grondin's years with

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

were his longest spent with any club. From 1998 to 2004 he helped his club stay in the French First Division while also winning two national cups in 1999 and 2000 and one championship in 2001. Internationally, he played his 2000–2002 seasons in Division 1, and also took part in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

for

Le Mans

Grondin was eventually loaned to the

Le Mans UC72 Le Mans Football Club (; commonly referred to as Le Mans FC, formerly referred as Le Muc) is a French association football club based in Le Mans. The club was founded in 1985 as a result of a merger under the name Le Mans Union Club 72. In 201 ...

and played for a full season with them, catching the attention of the Valenciennes FC, who purchased him the next year.

Valenciennes

Grondin played for Valenciennes FC and helped them to win the French Second Division, hence earning Valenciennes entrance to the French First Division, which they had been denied from for more than a decade. In the 2006–07 season, Grondin was moved to second choice goalkeeper, replaced by

Nicolas Penneteau Nicolas Penneteau (born 20 February 1981) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Penneteau was born in Marseille. By March 2014, he had made over 400 Ligue 1 appearances in a career with Bastia and Valenci ...

Paris Saint-Germain

After terminating his contract with Valenciennes on 9 July 2009, the goalkeeper signed a one-year deal with

Paris Saint-Germain F.C. 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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grondin, Willy 1974 births Living people Footballers from Réunion Association football goalkeepers French footballers FC Nantes players Le Mans FC players Valenciennes FC players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Ligue 1 players