Xavier Garbajosa (born 5 December 1976) is a retired French rugby player who is the manager of

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

side

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 ...

. Garbajosa was born on 5 December 1976 in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

. He plays in the back-line as a winger, center or full-back. He spent most of his career playing for the Stade Toulousain and moved to the

Aviron Bayonnais Aviron Bayonnais ( eu, Baionako Arrauna), commonly called Bayonne, is a French rugby union club from Bayonne (''Baiona'', in Basque) in Pyrénées-Atlantiques which, for the 2016-17 season, competed in the top tier of the French league system, ...

in the French

club competition in 2007. With Toulouse, he won the French championship in 1999 and 2001, as well as the European Cup in 2003. Between 2001 and 2003, he was the top-scorer in the French

for 3 consecutive years. He was a member of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

's squad at the 1999 Rugby World Cup (in which France were the runners-up), and notably participated in the semi-final against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He was selected in the French squad for the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

but had to leave the team before the beginning of the competition due to an injury. He was considered one of the most talented French players of his generation (he was part of the team which won the junior world championship in 1995) but his career was disturbed by recurring knee injuries. He played for the French national team 32 times, making his debut in 1998 in a Test against Ireland, and scored 7 tries (35 points). With the French national team, he won two Grand Slams in 1998 and 2002.

References

External links

ERC rugby bio
* 1976 births Living people Rugby union players from Toulouse French rugby union players French people of Spanish descent Rugby union wings Stade Toulousain players France international rugby union players Aviron Bayonnais players {{France-rugbyunion-bio-stub