Frank Leboeuf

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Frank Leboeuf
Personal information
Full name Franck Alain James Lebœuf[1][2]
Date of birth 22 January 1968 (1968-01-22) (age 41)
Place of birth Bouches-du-Rhône department, France
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1988–1991 Laval 69 (10)
1991–1996 Strasbourg 172 (40)
1996–2001 Chelsea 144 (17)
2001–2003 Olympique Marseille 51 (5)
2003–2004 Al-Sadd 17 (6)
2004–2005 Al Wakrah
National team
1995–2002 France 50 (5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Frank Leboeuf (born Franck Alain James Leboeuf[1], or Lebœuf (which literally translates to "the beef")[2], on 22 January 1968 near Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône) is a former French footballer, who played as a defender. With the French national team, Leboeuf won the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Contents

[edit] Club career

After starting his career in 1986 in the lower divisions of the French league, Leboeuf moved to Laval in 1988. In 1991, he moved to Strasbourg and played there until 1996, when he made a switch to English club Chelsea for £2.5m.

He played over 200 games for the club and scored 24 goals, mainly from penalties and set pieces. With Chelsea, he won two FA Cups, one League Cup and one Cup Winners' Cup. He left in 2001 for his hometown club Olympique Marseille, before finishing out his career in Qatar.

[edit] International career

For France, Leboeuf was capped 50 times, scoring five goals. Although he was mainly a substitiute in the 1998 World Cup, he stepped in for red carded Laurent Blanc to play in the final, a 3-0 win against Brazil.

Shortly after the tournament, he appeared on the now defunct BBC One comedy quiz show They Think its All Over. During the show every time a joke was aimed at Frank by any of the panel, or by host Nick Hancock he replied with simply "I don't care what you say, I've won the World Cup!", which after a while led to Hancock comparing him to Alan Ball.

Although he did not get off the bench, Leboeuf did receive a winner's medal at Euro 2000. He then played at the 2002 World Cup.

[edit] Playing style

A highly cultured centre back Leboeuf was noted for his long range passing ability and also for his consistent penalty-taking throughout his career. He took more than 20 penalties for Chelsea, missing just 3 times - against Leicester and Feyenoord and Blackburn. Leboeuf failed to score in a penalty shoot-out in Euro 2000.

[edit] Personal life

Leboeuf now lives in Los Angeles, USA and plays for celebrity team Hollywood United as a midfielder as he says he doesn't like chasing attackers anymore.

He also appeared in the 2001 film, Taking Sides.[3]

  • Currently in pre-production for Ocean Hotel, a feature film about Russian Mafia in New York City schedduled to be shot in New York City in 2010. Ocean Hotel also stars Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones and Gabriel Francois.
  • He will also star along with French actor Jean-Francois Garreaud in "L'intrus", a theater play touring in France from January to June 2010.

[edit] Awards

Following the 1998 World Cup, he was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1998.[1][4]

[edit] Club Playing Honours

France RC Strasbourg
England Chelsea
Qatar Al-Sadd Sports Club
Qatar Al-Wakrah Sports Club

[edit] International Playing Honours

France France National Football Team

[edit] Famous Quotes

  • "There are more stars in Qatar than in France"
  • "Fate is definitely with us, even if we have to pray a lot. I don't know if God is a Frenchman, but he is a good guy anyway" - Leboeuf on Spain's late penalty miss against France in Euro 2000[5]
  • "I now know what Rocky Balboa must have felt like - I am a World Champion"
  • "I have....won the World Cup"


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Décret du 24 juillet 1998 portant nomination à titre exceptionnel". JORF 1998 (170): 11376. 25 July 1998. PREX9801916D. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=PREX9801916D. Retrieved 10 May 2009. 
  2. ^ a b Lebœuf is the standard French spelling, but for engineering reasons œ is often typed as oe, even in French.
  3. ^ "Taking Sides". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260414/. Retrieved 12 July 2008. 
  4. ^ "France honors World Cup winners - Government gives Legion of Honor to players, coaches". CNN/SI. 1 September 1998. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/world/news/1998/09/01/france_legionhonor. Retrieved 20 July 2006. 
  5. ^ Leboeuf gets frank with Zizou BBC Sport, 26 June 2000
Preceded by
Yvon Pouliquen		 RC Strasbourg Captain
1995-1996		 Succeeded by
Gérald Baticle
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leboeuf"