Éric Yves Di Meco (born 7 September 1963) 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 ...

who played as a left back.

Club career

Di Meco was born in Avignon, Vaucluse. During his career, he played mostly for Olympique de Marseille. After starting as a

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 ...

and serving loans at

AS Nancy Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy, Grand Est and located in Tomblaine, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently ...

and

FC Martigues Football Club de Martigues, known as FC Martigues or just Martigues, is a French professional football club which plays in the Championnat National, the third level of football in France. The club plays at the Stade Francis Turcan, which has a ...

, he returned definitely in 1988, going on to amass a further 153 Ligue 1 games in an eventual four-in-a-row run of domestic leagues. After Marseille's relegation at the end of the 1993–94 season, due to irregularities, Di Meco joined AS Monaco still appearing regularly until his 1998 retirement at almost 35 years of age, with another league title conquered.

International career

For

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 ...

, Di Meco won the

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (International competition which nationa ...

in 1994 and was in roster for

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

. After the latter competition, where he acted as backup to the younger

Bixente Lizarazu Bixente Jean-Michel Lizarazu (, born 9 December 1969) is a French former professional footballer who played as a left back for Bordeaux and Bayern Munich, among other teams. He also had 97 caps for the France national team. In a twelve-year ...

, he retired from international football.

Post-retirement

After retiring from the pitches, Di Meco pursued a career as a politician, acting as

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

for UMP in

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 Fra ...

.Politique: Eric Di Meco (Politics: Eric Di Meco)
L'Express, 17 June 1999

Honours

Marseille * Division 1: 1988–89, 1989–90,

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

, 1991–92 *

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 ...

: 1988–89 * UEFA Champions League/European Cup:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

; runner-up:

Monaco *Division 1: 1996–97 France *

: 1994 Orders * Knight of the National Order of Merit: 1996

References

External links

*
L'OM profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Meco, Eric 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Avignon French footballers France international footballers Association football defenders Olympique de Marseille players AS Nancy Lorraine players FC Martigues players AS Monaco FC players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Champions League winning players French politicians French sportsperson-politicians Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite French people of Italian descent Footballers from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur