Thomas Castaignède (born 21 January 1975) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer from

Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (; Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a commune and capital of the Landes department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Population Military installations The French Air and Space Force operates the ''Constantin Rozan ...

. Born in

, Aquitaine, Castaignède played as a junior and senior for

Stade Montois Stade Montois is a French rugby union team that currently is playing in Pro D2, the second level of the country's professional league system. They were founded in 1908 and play in yellow and black. They are based in Mont-de-Marsan, the capita ...

in various positions, initially as fly-half or

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, and latterly as

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

. He joined

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 Par ...

to help them win French titles in three successive seasons, and lifted the inaugural

European Cup 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 ...

with the club. Castaignède then played for Castres Olympique before joining Saracens. Developing his career in preparation for his retirement, Castaignède became a rugby union columnist for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, a television pundit for Canal+ and occasionally ITV Sport, and started an association and occasional work with French banking group Société Générale. On 10 May 2007, despite offers to return to France with various clubs, Castaignède announced his retirement from the sport after the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

in September, choosing to pursue a career in banking in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

.Castaignède calls time on career
BBC Sport - 10 May 2007

References

External links

Profile at Saracens official siteERC profileList of caps, Part 1 (sporting-heroes.net)List of caps, Part 2 (sporting-heroes.net)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castaignède, Thomas 1975 births Living people People from Mont-de-Marsan French rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Stade Toulousain players Saracens F.C. players France international rugby union players Sportspeople from Landes (department) Stade Montois players