Grégoire André Defrel (born 17 June 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 lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

Club career

Parma

Defrel joined Parma in 2009, and made his debut for the club as a substitute at the age of 19 on 22 May 2011, in the final game of the

2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier Italian football, the 79th in a round-robin tournament, and the 1st since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

season in a

dead rubber Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...

against

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

, a match that ended 1–1.

Cesena

In June 2012, Cesena and Parma made a series of cashless player swaps, in which Defrel (€1.2 million) and Gianluca Lapadula (€1.4 million) went to Cesena, whilst Andrea Rossini (€1.6 million) and Nicola Del Pivo (€1.0 million) went to Parma. Both clubs retained 50% registration rights. In June 2013 and June 2014, Defrel's co-ownership was renewed. Despite Parma going bankrupted and failing to find a new buyer on 25 June 2015, Cesena submitted a bid of reported €51,000 to

Lega Serie A The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for ''National Professionals League Serie A''), commonly known as LNPA or Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional Association football, football com ...

to solve the co-ownership in favour of Cesena, despite the club not being required to do so.

Sassuolo

On 5 August 2015,

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

announced that they had signed Defrel from Cesena for an undisclosed fee. He was given the number 92 shirt.

Roma

On 20 July 2017, Defrel re-joined former manager

Eusebio Di Francesco Eusebio Di Francesco (; born 8 September 1969) is an Italian manager and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the head coach of club Venezia. Club career Di Francesco started his career with Tuscan teams Empoli and ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

on loan, for €5 million loan fee, with an obligation to make the transfer permanent for an additional €15 million (plus €3 million bonuses) should certain sporting targets be met. At the same time, Sassuolo signed Roma youth products Davide Frattesi and Riccardo Marchizza as part of the deal, for a total fee of €8 million.

Sampdoria (loan)

On 27 July 2018, Defrel joined

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria. Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the ...

on a season-long loan with the option to buy from Roma.

Sassuolo return (loan)

On 30 August 2019, Defrel returned to

on a season-long loan deal.

Modena

On 7 August 2024, Defrel joined

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

on a two-year contract.

International career

In May 2019, Defrel was named to

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

's provisional squad for the

2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 15th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's association football, soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was p ...

. However, he was dropped from the final roster.

Style of play

A fine dribbler, Defrel has been compared to compatriot Jérémy Ménez.

Career statistics

Club

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Defrel, Gregoire 1991 births Living people People from Meudon Footballers from Hauts-de-Seine French men's footballers French people of Martiniquais descent Men's association football forwards Parma Calcio 1913 players Calcio Foggia 1920 players AC Cesena players US Sassuolo Calcio players AS Roma players UC Sampdoria players Modena FC 2018 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century French sportsmen