Lilian Thuram

Lilian Thuram

Personal information
Full name	Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien
Date of birth	1 January 1972 (1972-01-01)
Place of birth	Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Right back / Centre back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1990–1996	Monaco	155	(8)
1996–2001	Parma	163	(1)
2001–2006	Juventus	145	(1)
2006–2008	Barcelona	41	(0)
Total		504	(10)
National team
1994–2008	France	142	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Lilian Thuram (born Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien on 1 January 1972 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe) is a retired professional football defender and is the most capped player in the history of the France national team, and one of the twenty most capped players of all time.

He played at the top flight in France, Italy and Spain for over 15 seasons, including ten in the Serie A with both Parma and Juventus. With France national football team, Thuram won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. Thuram holds the record for most appearances at the European Championship, with 16.

Club career

Thuram's football career began with AS Monaco of the French Ligue 1 in 1991. He then transferred to Parma FC (1996–2001) and then to Juventus FC (2001–2006) for £25 million, and eventually to FC Barcelona in 2006.

AS Monaco

Thuram started his professional career with AS Monaco in 1991. He only made 1 appearance that season, but was officially promoted to the first team the following season, when he would go on to make 19 appearances. He was inserted into the starting eleven by the end of 1992 and would go onto make 155 league appearances for the Ligue 1 outfit, before transferring to Parma FC in the summer of 1996. He made his national team debut in 1994, while at Monaco.

Parma FC

In July 1996, Thuram made a highly watched transfer to Italy, with Serie A club, Parma. In his first season with the club, he made over 40 appearances for the club, in all competitions, scoring 1 goal. He maintained starting position throughout his time with Parma, and racked up 163 Serie A appearances, scoring the lone league goal. In all, he made over 200 appearances for the club, really making a name for himself, also earning caps for France. Following another overly impressive season in 2000–2001, Thuram along with teammate Gianluigi Buffon transferred to Juventus FC, one of the European giants, and Italian Scudetto holders. His transfer cost the club reported £22 million. While at Parma, he won the UEFA Cup in 1998–99, along with eventual Juventus teammate Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro.

Juventus FC

In the summer of 2001, Thuram made a high profile transfer to Juventus FC, along with Buffon. During this period, under coach Marcello Lippi, Juventus was considered as one of the strongest teams in the world, also containing what was considered as one of the best defences in the world by many, and teams strongly regretted ever going down a goal to the club, as they knew how hard it would be to score one back for themselves. Thuram formed impressive defensive partnerships with the likes of Ciro Ferrara, Paolo Montero, Gianluca Pessotto, Mark Iuliano, Alessandro Birindelli, Igor Tudor, Gianluca Zambrotta, Nicola Legrottaglie, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Federico Balzaretti, and Jonathan Zebina during his 5 year tenure with the club. During his time with the club Thuram won the Scudetto two times with Juventus. During the seasons 2004–05 and 2005–06, under coach Fabio Capello, Thuram, along with Gianluigi Buffon in goal, Gianluca Zambrotta at left back, he and Fabio Cannavaro in the center of defence, and Jonathan Zebina at right back formed one of the most expensive, but also most feared, defenses in Italy. After 5 years with the Italian giants, Thuram transferred to FC Barcelona in La Liga, in the wake of the calciopoli scandal. He managed over 200 total appearances for the club, with 2 goals.

FC Barcelona

On 24 July 2006, Thuram signed with Spanish club FC Barcelona for 5 million after Juventus were relegated to Serie B due to the Calciopoli scandal. Sadly, after his contract expired in the 2007–2008 season, Thuram was forced to call time on his illustrious career due to a rare heart condition which had a few years prior taken the life of his brother. In the season before his announced retirement (the 2007–08 season), he was the third/fourth choice centre back after Carles Puyol, Gabriel Milito, and Rafael Márquez.

International career

After becoming world champion in 1998, Thuram was an integral part of France's triumph at Euro 2000, which led to the team being ranked by FIFA as number one from 2001–2002. He also played in the 2002 World Cup, 2006 World Cup, Euro 96, Euro 2004, and Euro 2008

1998 World Cup

Thuram scored only two international goals, both of which came in one game – the 1998 World Cup semi-final against Croatia, in which France came back to win 2–1 and advance to the final. France defeated Brazil 3–0 to capture their inaugural World Cup and Thuram won the Bronze Ball as the third most valuable player in the tournament. He, Bixente Lizarazu, Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly formed the backbone of the French defence that conceded only 2 goals in seven games.

2006 World Cup

After a brief international retirement, France coach Raymond Domenech convinced Thuram to return to the French team on 17 August 2005, along with fellow "Golden Generation" teammates Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makélélé, as Les Bleus struggled to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Thuram's centre-back partnership with William Gallas was to be the foundation for France's progression to the final. Thuram earned his 116th cap for France in the group stage match against South Korea in Leipzig on 18 June 2006. In that game he equalled Desailly's record number of caps, which he broke in the final group stage match, a 2–0 win over Togo in Cologne on 23 June 2006, winning his 117th cap. He was named the Man of the match in France's semi-final 1–0 victory against Portugal, coincidentally the same distinction he had earned eight years earlier at the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

Euro 2008

On 9 June 2008, Thuram took the field against Romania in a group match, and became the first player to make 15 UEFA European Championship finals appearances. The former record of 14 appearances was held by Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo and Karel Poborský. He played one more game during the tournament, raising the number of his appearances to 16, which record was then equaled a few days later by Edwin van der Sar from the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Thuram was the captain of France in the tournament. He, along with Claude Makélélé, announced his retirement from international football on 17 June 2008, after France's 2–0 loss to Italy. He finished his career with the national team as France's most capped player with 142 caps.

Personal life

His cousin is Troyes AC player Yohann Thuram. He likes the singer Admiral T and played in his music video Fos A Peyi La.

Political engagement

During the French riots in November 2005, Thuram took a position against Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of the conservative political party UMP and President of the French Republic. Thuram was opposed to the verbal attacks against young people that the then-Minister made when he talked about the "scum", and he said that Nicolas Sarkozy never lived in a suburban estate.

On 6 September 2006, Thuram sparked controversy when he invited 80 people, who were expelled by French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy from a flat where they lived illegally, to the football match between France and Italy. He has also engaged in campaigns that favour the Catalan language and that favour the independence of Roussillon (Northern Catalonia) from France.

In November 2011 Thuram curated an exhibition at the Musée du quai Branly entitled Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage. It examined the human zoos that traced the practice of using colonial subjects as exhibits in zoos and freak shows. The material in the exhibition runs from the parade of Brazil's Tupinamba 'savages' for the royal entrance of King Henry II of France in 1550 in Rouen, to the last "living spectacle" of Congo villagers exhibited in Brussels in 1958.

Career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
1990–91	Monaco	Division 1	1	0
1991–92			19	0
1992–93			37	0
1993–94			25	1
1994–95			37	2
1995–96			36	5
Italy			League		Coppa Italia		League Cup		Europe		Total
1996–97	Parma	Serie A	34	1
1997–98			32	0
1998–99			34	0
1999–2000			33	0
2000–01			30	0
2001–02	Juventus	Serie A	30	0
2002–03			27	1
2003–04			24	0
2004–05			37	0					9	0	46	0
2005–06			27	0					8	0	35	0
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Copa de la Liga		Europe		Total
2006–07	FC Barcelona	La Liga	23	0	2	0			4	0	29	0
2007–08			18	0	4	0			6	0	28	0
Total	France		155	8
	Italy		308	2					17	0	81	0
	Spain		41	0					10	0	57	0
Career total			504	10	4	0			27	0	136	0

France national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1994	1	0
1995	5	0
1996	13	0
1997	8	0
1998	16	2
1999	9	0
2000	14	0
2001	4	0
2002	12	0
2003	12	0
2004	9	0
2005	7	0
2006	16	0
2007	10	0
2008	6	0
Total	142	2

International Goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	8 July 1998	Stade de France, Paris	Croatia	1 – 1	2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup
2	8 July 1998	Stade de France, Paris	Croatia	2 – 1	2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup

Club Playing Honours

AS Monaco FC

• Coupe de France: 1991

Parma F.C.

• Coppa Italia: 1999
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1999
• UEFA Cup: 1999

Juventus F.C.

• Serie A: 2001–02 2002–03
• Supercoppa Italiana: 2002, 2003

FC Barcelona

• Spanish Super Cup: 2006

International Playing Honours

French national team

• FIFA World Cup: 1998, runner-up 2006
• UEFA European Football Championship: 2000
• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2003

Individual Playing Honours

• Guerin d'Oro: 1997
• FIFA World Cup Bronze Ball: 1998
• FIFA World Cup All-Star-Team: 1998, 2006
• Légion d'honneur: 1998
• UEFA Euro All-Star-Team: 2000
• FIFA 100: 2004
• FIFPro World XI: 2006

External links

• FootballDatabase provides Lilian Thuram's profile and stats
• FC Barcelona player profile
• List of caps at RSSSF.com
• thuram-lilian {{{last}}} French league stats at LFP.fr (French)