Mickaël Antoine-Curier

Mickaël Antoine-Curier

Personal information
Full name	Mickaël Antoine-Curier
Date of birth	5 March 1983 (1983-03-05)
Place of birth	Orsay, France
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
	Paris Saint-Germain
	Nice
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2001	Preston North End	10	(3)
2001–2003	Nottingham Forest	6	(2)
2003	→ Brentford (loan)	11	(3)
2003	Oldham Athletic	8	(2)
2003	Kidderminster Harriers	1	(0)
2003	Rochdale	8	(1)
2003–2004	Sheffield Wednesday	1	(0)
2004	Notts County	4	(1)
2004	Grimsby Town	5	(4)
2004–2006	Vard Haugesund	37	(33)
2006–2007	FK Haugesund	39	(15)
2007–2008	Hibernian	13	(5)
2008	→ Dundee (loan)	11	(8)
2008–2010	Dundee	32	(14)
2009–2010	→ Hamilton Academical (loan)	26	(11)
2011	Hamilton Academical	14	(5)
2011	Ethnikos Achnas	8	(4)
National team‡
2008–	Guadeloupe	13	(6)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:48, 20 December 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 00:00, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Mickaël Antoine-Curier (born 5 March 1983) is a French born Guadeloupean professional footballer who last played in Cyprus for Ethnikos Achnas.

He has previously played in France, England, Norway and Scotland.

Career

England

Antoine-Curier began his career as a youth in France with Paris Saint-Germain and Nice. Eager to play in the United Kingdom, he signed for Preston North End and then Nottingham Forest as a youth. He initially played academy football, finish top scorer for the Forest academy team with 22 goals in 19 games. He won the trophy for the academy player of the year and was selected as man of the match of the Charity Vase final by Brian Clough, but he never made it for the first team. During the 2002–03 season, the Forest manager Paul Hart loaned him out to Brentford, where he made 11 starts, scoring three goals. This included a brace in an important 2–0 victory at Chesterfield.

He came to prominence at the start of the 2003–04 season in the third tier of English football, having signed for Oldham Athletic. He grabbed his first cup goal in a 2–1 defeat at Scunthorpe United, then scored his first league goal for the "Latics" four days later in a 2–2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium. He grabbed another goal in a 3–2 home defeat to Blackpool the following week. He made a total of six starts and three substitute appearances for the Boundary Park club, scoring three goals, before being released.

Antoine-Curier then joined Kidderminster Harriers, before joining Rochdale on a non-contract basis. He made five starts and five substitute appearances for Rochdale, scoring on his debut in a 1–1 draw at Lincoln City. He then left Rochdale to join Sheffield Wednesday, a club he had scored against earlier on in the season. He made just one substitute appearance for Wednesday, in a 0–0 draw against Luton Town at Hillsborough.

He then joined Notts County, where he made four starts, scoring in a 3–1 win over Grimsby Town, who he signed for shortly afterwards. He also made five appearances for Grimsby, but could not score. Both Grimsby and Notts County were relegated at the end of the season.

Norway

After an unsettled time in the UK, Curier joined Norwegian First Division side Vard Haugesund in 2004. In his first season he scored 7 goals in 16 appearances, but the club was relegated. He scored 27 goals in 21 games in the 2005 season, winning the Norwegian golden boot and the Norwegian Second Division player of the year award. He then transferred to FK Haugesund, and scored 8 goals in 24 appearances in the 2006 season and 7 goals in 15 appearances in the 2007 season.^{[citation needed]}

Scotland

Antoine-Curier was invited by manager John Collins to Scottish Premier League side Hibernian for a trial period in 2007. He starred in a friendly match against First Division side Livingston, scoring four goals in a 5–2 victory. FK Haugesund captain Kevin Nicol, a former Hibernian player, was full of praise for Antoine-Curier, expressing his belief that the French striker "would do really well" if he was signed by Hibs. Curier signed a one year contract with Hibernian, who paid FK Haugesund a nominal transfer fee, on 31 August 2007. Antoine-Curier scored against Motherwell in the Scottish League Cup and Kilmarnock in the SPL. Despite scoring four goals in nine appearances, Antoine-Curier fell out of favour after Hibs signed Colin Nish.

Curier was loaned by Hibs to Dundee in January 2008. Curier scored six goals in his first four Dundee appearances, including a hat-trick in a 6–1 win over Stirling Albion. On 7 May 2008, Curier signed a three year deal with Dundee.

Dundee loaned out Antoine-Curier at the end of the 2009 summer transfer window to SPL side Hamilton Academical. Antoine-Curier made his debut against Hibernian in the SPL and marked it with a goal after 12 minutes. On 15 October 2010, Antoine-Curier had his contract terminated by Dundee, a victim of the club entering administration.

On 11 January 2011, following a battle with injury, Antoine-Curier re-signed for Hamilton until the end of the season.

Cyprus

In July 2011 he signed a two year deal with Cypriot side Ermis Aradippou, however his contract was terminated due to financial difficulties at the club and he joined Ermis’ former president and a host of the club’s former players at Ethnikos Achnas in August, just days before the 2011–12 season.

International career

Curier was selected by Guadeloupe for the Caribbean Cup 2008, scoring 6 goals in 8 games. He also participated in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup for Guadeloupe, in which they reached the quarter finals.

External links

• Mickaël Antoine-Curier career stats at Soccerbase
• Mickaël Antoine-Curier at National-Football-Teams.com
• International Statistics at CaribbeanFootballDatabase
• Norwegian & International Statistics of Football – Antoine-Curier factfile