Marc-Antoine Fortuné

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Marc-Antoine Fortuné

Personal information
Full name	Marc-Antoine Fortuné
Date of birth	2 July 1981 (1981-07-02) (age 28)
Place of birth	Cayenne, French Guiana
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Celtic
Number	10
Youth career
	Angoulême
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1998–2002	Angoulême	63	(18)
2002–2003	Lille	16	(0)
2003-2004	→ Rouen (loan)	34	(10)
2004-2005	Stade Brest	33	(10)
2005–2007	Utrecht	53	(11)
2007–2009	Nancy	72	(12)
2009	→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)	17	(5)
2009-	Celtic	10	(5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:26, 17 December 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Marc-Antoine Fortuné (born 2 July 1981 in Cayenne, French Guiana) is a French professional football player, currently with Scottish club Celtic.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 France 1.1.1 Angoulême 1.1.2 Lille 1.1.3 Rouen 1.1.4 Stade Brest 1.2 Dutch Eredivisie 1.2.1 Utrecht 1.3 Return to France 1.3.1 Nancy 1.4 Premier League loan stint 1.4.1 West Bromwich Albion 1.5 Moving to Scotland 1.5.1 Celtic 2 Career statistics 3 Personal 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] France

[edit] Angoulême

As a child Fortuné played both football and basketball, but gave the latter up at aged 12 due to scheduling conflicts.^[1] At age 16 he was given a trial by French side, Rennes. He was not offered a contract, but instead signed for lowed League team Angouleme. He broke into the Angouleme side in the 1999/2000 season and had a successful start scoring three goals in ten appearances before the end of the seasons. At the end of the 2000-2001 campaign, Fortuné propelled the club out of the Championnat de France amateur and into the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. His continued goalscoring form and overall performance during the this and the following season caused much speculation over his future with media speculation constantly linking him with many Ligue 1 clubs. In the following summer, Fortuné joined Ligue 1 side Lille. In all Fortuné made a total of 63 league appearances for Angouleme CFC, scoring 18 goals.

[edit] Lille

Upon joining Lille the then 21-year old struggled, finding himself playing on the left of midfield. This coupled with a constant series of injuries lead to dips in form and a poor time in Fortuné's career. He was injured on his second appearance for the club and was ruled out for a month, upon his return to action, he again picked up an injury. This new injury caused Fortuné to be out of action for a further six weeks. In his first and only season for Lille, he made started just 7 times and only made a further 9 appearances from the substitutes bench. During this season he was unable to score a single goal.

[edit] Rouen

Fortuné joined Ligue 2 club Rouen on loan from Lille OSC in the summer of 2003 with an option to make the move permanent. With this fresh start for the young player, Fortuné saw a return to form. Playing from right-midfield he managed to score goals in his first three appearances which earned him a role back to his preferred role of striker. A successful season at FC Rouen ended with 10 Ligue 2 goals in 34 appearances. His good form in Ligue 2 for Rouen earned him a move to Stade Brest.

[edit] Stade Brest

Fortuné moved to fellow Ligue 2 side Stade Brest in July 2004, making it his third new club in three successive seasons. It turned out to be another successful move for Fortuné. He started out the season playing wide on the right side of a front three. This lead to a league position of 9 and a good run in the Coupe de France ending in the quarterfinal stage. He scored 10 goals in 33 Ligue 2 appearances and started to draw attention from bigger clubs around Europe including Eredivisie side FC Utrecht.

[edit] Dutch Eredivisie

[edit] Utrecht

In 2005 he moved to Utrecht in the Dutch Eredivisie. Finding himself back in the winger role he enjoyed a successful time in Utrecht but struggled after the death of his friend, neighbour and team mate David Di Tommaso.^[1] During his time at Utrecht, Fortuné scored a total of 13 goals making 56 appearances in both league and cup for the Eredivisie club. During the January transfer window of the following season he looked for a move back to France after an unsettling period in Holland. He secured a move back before the transfer deadline and was signed by Coupe de la Ligue winners and Ligue 1 side AS Nancy.

[edit] Return to France

[edit] Nancy

Fortuné returned to France in January 2007, this becoming his fifth move in as many years, with Tomblaine club AS Nancy. He started off his first season back in France well, scoring 6 goals in 17 Ligue 1 appearances. The 2007-08 season saw Fortuné struggling for form and to score goals. This caused him to take on the role of a substitute for most of the season. He finished the 2007-08 campaign with just 7 goals in 38 appearances, with most of them being from the bench. His third season back in France with Nancy saw much of the same as the previous. Fortuné made just 24 appearances with most of them as a second-half subsititute. This season was even less successful as Fortuné netted only two goals during the Ligue 1 season. He became unsettled at AS Nancy but was unable to secure a move away from the Stade Marcel Picot during the summer transfer window. During the first half of the 2008-09 he was once again used by Uruguayan coach Pablo Correa mainly as a substitute with several clubs from England tracking his progress.

[edit] Premier League loan stint

[edit] West Bromwich Albion

Fortuné moved to West Bromwich Albion in the January 2009 transfer window, joining on loan for the remainder of the 2008–09 season.^[2] He made his debut for West Bromwich Albion in their 3-0 Premier League home win over Middlesbrough and scored by deflecting team mate Robert Koren's shot into the net.^[3] In just five months with the club, he became a fan favourite of the supporters, scoring five goals in eighteen appearances as well as creating other goals. He won the West Bromwich Albion Supporters' Player of the Year despite only joining the club in January.

[edit] Moving to Scotland

[edit] Celtic

After a good finish to the 2008-09 Premier League with West Brom there was much media speculation circling the footballer. He was linked with several teams in England, including a return to West Brom along with Hull City and Fulham. In July 2009 it was widely reported that Fortune was in talks with Celtic, managed by his former boss at West Brom, Tony Mowbray. The following day he agreed personal terms and passed a medical with the Scottish Premier League club.^[4] On 9 July 2009 Fortune completed his move to Celtic in a deal worth £3.8 million.^[5] He made his debut for Celtic against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium in the Translink Cup.^[6]

Fortuné made his competitive debut on 29 July against Dynamo Moscow where Celtic lost 1-0. He than appeared as a substitute against Arsenal in the first leg of the third-qualifying round of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League with his team losing 2-0. He scored his first Celtic goals in his home league debut on 22 August in a 5-2 win against St. Johnstone at Celtic Park. He started in Celtic's next game at The Emirates Stadium against Arsenal playing in a 3-1 loss; 5-1 on aggregate.

On 12 December, in a game against Motherwell at Fir Park, Fortuné came off the bench and moments later crashed a right-footed effort into the top corner of the net to clinch a 3-2 victory for Celtic. He then scored his first European goals for the Bhoys five days later, a brace in a 3-3 draw against Rapid Vienna in the Europa League.

[edit] Career statistics

As of 17 December 2009.

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Angoulême	1999-00	10	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	3
	2000-01	17	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	17	3
	2001-02	36	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	36	12
	Total	63	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	63	18
Lille	2002-03	16	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	0
	Total	16	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	0
Rouen	2003-04	34	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	34	10
	Total	34	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	34	10
Brest	2004-05	33	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	33	10
	Total	33	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	33	10
Utrecht	2005-06	31	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	31	6
	2006-07	22	5	3	2	-	-	-	-	25	7
	Total	53	11	3	2	-	-	-	-	56	13
Nancy	2006-07	15	5	0	0	0	0	2	1	17	6
	2007-08	37	6	1	1	0	0	0	0	38	7
	2008-09	19	1	0	0	0	0	5	1	24	2
	Total	71	12	1	1	0	0	7	2	79	15
West Brom	2008-09	17	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	18	5
	Total	17	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	18	5
Celtic	2009-10	8	3	0	0	0	0	5	2	13	5
	Total	8	3	0	0	0	0	6	2	14	5
Career total		294	69	5	3	0	0	13	4	312	79

[edit] Personal

Marc grew up supporting French club Marseille and cites them as his favourite team. In his spare time he likes to DJ and is a close friend of the German DJ Boys Noize. He likes sitcoms and movies, often making his own amateur films at school and would like to become an actor upon retiring from Football.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Nancy club profile
• Official WBA profile at wba.co.uk
• Career stats at lfp.fr
• Marc-Antoine Fortuné career stats at Soccerbase
• Fortune Profile at CelticTalk.org

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