Florent Malouda

Florent Johan Malouda (born June 13 1980 in Cayenne, French Guiana) is a French footballer. Malouda plays as a left winger for Chelsea FC in the Premier League and France National Team. He is a left winger who can also play as a second striker or behind the front two.

Florent Malouda signed for Chelsea in July 2007 after beating off stiff competition from around Europe including Liverpool and Real Madrid. The 27 year old French winger joined Chelsea from Lyon for an undisclosed fee said to be within the £13.5 million mark. He joined them on a four and a half years deal.

Club career

Guingamp

Malouda was then signed by top division side Guingamp following Châteauroux's inability to secure a Ligue 1 berth. It was in Guingamp where his talent was showcased in French top-flight football. Under the tutelage of coach Guy Lacombe, Malouda demonstrated his tremendous ability and formed a superb assister and finisher combination with then team-mate Didier Drogba.

In 92 appearances for Guingamp, Malouda scored 15 goals.

Lyon

Malouda's performances at Guingamp began catching the attention of French giants Olympique Lyonnais who, after claiming their second consecutive title during the 2002–03 season, decided to sign Malouda. In an outstanding Lyon team containing Juninho Pernambucano, Michael Essien, Gregory Coupet, and Mahamadou Diarra, Malouda established himself on the left side of Lyon's attack, forming great link-ups with all of Lyon's strikers. His performances for Lyon finally earned him a much deserved call up to the French national football team.

The highlights of Malouda's career at Lyon were a man of the match display against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League and his 10 goals which led Lyon to their sixth consecutive Ligue 1 title, both during the 2006–07 season.

He also won the Ligue 1 Player of the Year that season, succeeding team-mate Juninho, Lille's Abdul Kader Keïta, Toulouse's Johan Elmander and Lens' Seydou Keïta to the accolade.

Malouda made public his wish to leave Lyon at the end of the 2006–07 season, with both Chelsea and Real Madrid showing interest in the winger. On June 29 2007, Malouda told Lyon based newspaper Le Progres that he has his heart set on a move to Chelsea, confirming that Chelsea had lodged a €17m bid for him. Malouda later repeated this comment in an interview with the Daily Star. On July 5 2007, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon told Sky Sports News that Chelsea had been in discussions with Lyon regarding Malouda's transfer and were hoping to tie up the deal before Chelsea's pre-season tour in the USA.

Chelsea

On July 8 2007, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas announced that Lyon had accepted an undisclosed bid, rumoured to be around €20,000,000/£13,500,000, from Chelsea for Malouda. Chelsea later officially revealed that Malouda would be travelling to London on July 9 for a medical and to discuss personal terms. Malouda had looked set to join Liverpool until the Premiership rivals Chelsea intervened, and the opportunity to play for Liverpool faded. At 7pm on the same day, Malouda officially signed a three-year contract with the club. He was handed the number 15 shirt. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho described Malouda as a mature and proven player who was up to the challenge of adapting to the fast pace of English football, and hinted that Malouda would be fielded in tandem with Dutch winger Arjen Robben.

In his first game for Chelsea, a pre-season friendly against Mexican side Club América, Malouda scored the equaliser and set up John Terry for the winning goal as Chelsea went on to win 2–1.

Malouda made his competitive debut for Chelsea against Manchester United in the 2007 FA Community Shield on August 5, 2007 in a 1-1 draw, despite Chelsea going on to lose on penalties, he scored in what was an impressive display.

Malouda started against Birmingham City on August 12 on the left wing, a position previously adopted by Arjen Robben and Joe Cole. Malouda scored Chelsea's second goal in a 3–2 victory, before being replaced by Steve Sidwell in the 83rd minute.

On August 19, Malouda won a dubious penalty decision from referee Rob Styles in a Premier League game against Liverpool. Replays of the incident indicated Malouda had backed into the Liverpool defender, Jamie Carragher, after trying to leave the ball for the unmarked Drogba. The penalty kick was given and Frank Lampard scored. Referee Rob Styles was dropped from the next weekend Premier League games as a result of this incident and some other contentious decisions during the game. He scored against Schalke 04 in his first Champions League game for Chelsea squeezing the ball through keeper Manuel Neuer's legs after turning his marker Rafinha. On January 23, Malouda set up Joe Cole with a long pass to score against Everton in the Carling Cup, Chelsea won 3-1 on aggregate. On May 5 2008 Malouda scored his second Premier League goal in the penultimate game of the season against Newcastle United, cooly converting Frank Lampard's through ball. Malouda ended his first season in English football with two goals and one assist in the league, a relatively poor return due to being second choice on the left wing to Salomon Kalou for the majority of the season and the shock arrival of Avram Grant as Chelsea manager.

Malouda scored his first two goals in the Scolari era against Bordeaux F.C. in the Champions League group stages on 16th September 2008 and in the Carling Cup third round tie against Portsmouth F.C.. Both games went on to be 4-0 victories for Chelsea.

International career

Malouda made his debut for the France on November 17 2004 in a match against Poland. He then became a regular for his country, earning a call up to the 23-man squad named by coach Raymond Domenech for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. His first goal for France arrived on May 31 2005 against Hungary.

After playing almost throughout France's qualifying campaign for the World Cup, Malouda went on to start and star for France in Germany. He was an important figure in France's success in the World Cup, eventually losing on penalties to Italy in the final. He dove to win a penalty for France in the final which was converted by Zinédine Zidane. To date, Malouda has scored three goals while earning 42 caps for the French national team.

International goals

Florent Malouda: International Goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	May 31, 2005	Stade Municipal Saint-Symphorien, Metz, France		2–0	2–1	Friendly match
2.	May 27, 2006	Stade de France, Saint Denis, France		1–0	1–0	Friendly match
3.	September 2, 2006	Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi, Georgia		0–1	0–3	EURO 2008 qualifying

Career statistics

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cups		Continental games		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Lyon	06–07	35	10	5	0	7	2	47	12
	05–06	31	6			9	0	40	6
	04–05	37	5			10	3	47	8
	03–04	35	4			10	0	45	4
	Total	138	25	5	0	36	5	179	30
Guingamp	02–03	37	10					37	10
	01–02	32	4					32	4
	00–01	23	1					23	1
	Total	92	15					92	15
Châteauroux	99–00	28	2					28	2
	98–99	28	3					28	3
	97–98	1	0					1	0
	96–97	2	0					2	0
	Total	59	5					59	5
Career Totals		289	45	5	0	36	5	330	50
Last updated July 1, 2007

Honours

• 2006 FIFA World Cup runners-up

References

External links

• Footballdatabase provides Florent Malouda's profile and stats