Jérémy Morel (born 2 April 1984) is a 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 a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Montagnarde. Born in France, he opted to represent the Madagascar national team internationally.

Club career

Lorient

Born in

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

, Morel made his senior debut for

FC Lorient Football Club Lorient Bretagne Sud (; commonly referred to FC Lorient or simply Lorient) is a French association football club based in Lorient, Brittany. The club was founded in 1926 and currently competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of Frenc ...

at the age of 19, coming on as a substitute for

Pape Malick Diop Pape Malick Diop (born 29 December 1974) is a Senegalese former footballer who played as a defender. He played for Racing Strasbourg (France), Neuchâtel Xamax (Switzerland) and FC Lorient (France). At international level, he represented the S ...

in Lorient's

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

1–0 defeat at home to

FC Gueugnon Football Club Gueugnonnais (commonly called Gueugnon ) is a French association football club based in Gueugnon, Burgundy. The club was formed in 1940 and plays its home matches at the Stade Jean Laville located within the city. The club has ...

on 19 April 2003. He played only one other match (a Ligue 2 match) in the 2002–03 season. In the next three seasons, he progressively played more matches for Lorient. Morel played 28 matches in Lorient's 2005–06 Ligue 2 season in which Lorient finished in third position; they were thus promoted to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

for the 2006–07 season.

Marseille

On 19 June 2011, Morel ended his nine-year senior spell with Lorient to join Ligue 1 club

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...

, signing a contract that would last until 30 June 2015.

Lyon

On 1 June 2015, Morel Joined

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, ...

on a three-year contract. On 13 April 2017, Morel pinched the ball from goalkeeper

Fabri Fabri is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Anna Fabri (f. 1496), Swedish publisher and printer * Annibale Pio Fabri (1697–1760), Italian singer and composer * Emanuel Fabri (born 1952), Maltese footballer * Ernst Fabri (1891� ...

in the

penalty area The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it. With ...

and tapped it into an empty net in the 84th minute for the final goal of Lyon's 2–1 home 2016–17 UEFA Europa League quarterfinal first-leg win against

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

; it was his first career competitive goal for Lyon and the first UEFA club competition goal of his club career, coming in his 33rd UEFA club competition match, having played 23 matches 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 competi ...

and 10 matches in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

for both Marseille and Lyon.

Rennes

On 16 July 2019, Morel left Lyon upon the ending of his contract and joined

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departm ...

on a one-year deal.

Lorient

In summer 2020, Morel rejoined his boyhood club

on a free transfer, signing a one-year deal with an option for another year. Lorient are newly promoted to Ligue 1 after finishing top at the end of the 2019–20 Ligue 2 season. He left Lorient on 26 August 2022, one of four players to do so that day, alongside Houboulang Mendes,

Fabien Lemoine Fabien Lemoine (born 16 March 1987) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Versailles. Club career Lemoine made his professional league debut for Rennes on 13 January 2008, he made a total of 18 league appearanc ...

and

Jérôme Hergault Jérôme Hergault (born 5 April 1986) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defender. He has previously played for Lavaur, Luzenac, Rouen and Red Star. Career Hergault joined FC Lorient in summer 2019. He left Lorient on 26 Augus ...

International career

On 28 October 2018, Morel announced that he would represent the Madagascar national team, the birth country of his father. He made his debut for Madagascar on 18 November 2018 in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sudan. He played at

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championshi ...

when Madagascar made a sensational advance to the quarterfinals.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Madagascar's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Morel goal.''

Honours

Marseille *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

: 2011 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France, w ...

: 2011–12

References

External links

Career stats
at lfp.fr * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morel, Jeremy 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Lorient French footballers People with acquired Malagasy citizenship Malagasy footballers French sportspeople of Malagasy descent Malagasy people of French descent Madagascar international footballers Association football fullbacks FC Lorient players Olympique de Marseille players Olympique Lyonnais players Stade Rennais F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Footballers from Brittany 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players