french association football player

Mikaël Samy Silvestre ( born 9 August 1977 ) is a french erstwhile professional football player who played as a defender. Silvestre began his career at Rennes in 1996, before moving to italian baseball club Inter Milan in 1998. He joined Manchester United in 1999, where he won five Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League in his final season at the cabaret in 2008. He then joined Arsenal, followed by a move to german side Werder Bremen two years late. After a further two years in Germany, he moved to the United States to play for Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer, before signing for amerind Super League side Chennaiyin in 2014, where he retired at the end of the season.

Silvestre has besides played for the France national team, earning 40 caps between 2001 and 2006. He represented France at two FIFA World Cups ( 2002 and 2006, winning a runner-up decoration in the latter version of the tournament ), UEFA Euro 2004, and two conquests of the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001 and 2003. [ 4 ]

early life [edit ]

Silvestre was born in Chambray-lès-Tours, Indre-et-Loire. [ 5 ]

Club career [edit ]

early career [edit ]

Silvestre started playing football with the Rennes Football Academy in Brittany and began his league career with the french club in the 1995–96 season. His time at the baseball club helped build his reputation, and in the 1997–98 season was signed by Inter Milan. He made 31 appearances for Inter in Serie A, Coppa Italia and in the UEFA Champions League .

manchester United [edit ]

Despite an approach from Liverpool director Gérard Houllier, [ 6 ] Silvestre signed for Manchester United for £4 million on 10 September 1999, [ 7 ] and made his debut against Liverpool at Anfield the future day. In his first season at Manchester United he replaced an injure Ronny Johnsen in the center of defense mechanism with Jaap Stam ; By the 2001–02 season, Silvestre had established himself in refutation ahead of the veteran Denis Irwin, and was proving to be adept both in defense and in getting forward at left rear. He set up numerous goals for Ruud van Nistelrooy, notably away to Deportivo de La Coruña in a 2–0 towards the end of the season. During the future season he carried on initially where he left off at the left of Manchester United ‘s spinal column four, but following injury to Rio Ferdinand and the poor performance of an aging Laurent Blanc, he was switched to his favor position of central defense. This first happened at half-time in the UEFA Champions League match away in Basel on 26 November 2002 when the team were 1–0 toss off and struggling with a unseasoned John O’Shea looking shaky at the heart of the defense mechanism. Silvestre and O’Shea were switched for the second one-half and the team immediately looked more solid defensively. From this point Silvestre forged a successful partnership mid-season with Wes Brown at the heart of the defense until Ferdinand ‘s return, looking calm air and assured. Using his pace to good effect, while continuing to provide goals with his accurate diagonal balls. The beginning of the 2003–04 season saw Silvestre paired with Ferdinand in the kernel of the team ‘s defense. however, this was cut short following Ferdinand ‘s eight-month ban for missing a drug test. In the latter half of this season when being paired with an disqualify Wes Brown, Manchester United ‘s defense proved to be quite less guarantee and both Brown and Silvestre were at fault for numerous goals and despite winning the FA Cup with a 3–0 victory over Millwall, this uncertainty at the affection of the refutation was to continue into the depart of the 2004–05 season. rival for places grew significantly during the January transfer window in 2006 with the signings of Nemanja Vidić and Patrice Evra. Although both struggled to adapt initially, both went on to establish themselves as firm sports fan favourites and keystone members of the Manchester United squad. Following the partnership of Vidić and Ferdinand at the heart of the defense, and Evra ‘s retain of the left-back placement, Silvestre found it more unmanageable to secure a set in the Manchester United starting line-up. however, his form improved toward the end of the season. He admitted that he was given the option to leave during the January transfer window during 2006, with an opportunity to join former Liverpool coach Gérard Houllier at Lyon. He did however decide to stay and fight for his rate at United. On 11 August 2006, his loyalty to the club was rewarded with a new condense extending his persist at the club until at least 2009. Alex Ferguson commented : “ Mikael has been an significant member of the team for seven years now. His know at the Club will help the younger players as they develop and he has a cardinal character to play in the first team. ” [ 8 ] He started the 2006–07 season against Watford, scoring a goal, his foremost away goal for United, to give United the leash. He was starting to reassert himself in the left-back function when he broke a metatarsal in a 1–0 get the better of to Arsenal. After recovering and playing respective games, he dislocated his shoulder in a Champions League win against Lille OSC, meaning he was unable to play for the rest of the season. [ 9 ] He did, however, win his fourth Premier League winner ‘s decoration that season as United won the league for the first time since 2003. With Gabriel Heinze moving to Real Madrid, Silvestre was set to struggle Evra for the starting left-back spot in the first base eleven at Manchester United in the 2007–08 season. On 15 September, however, Silvestre was stretchered off with stifle ligament damage that would rule him out for the rest of the season. On 24 September, Ferguson revealed that : “ I ‘m sure Mikael will be back in March. ” He besides said, “ we had him operated on in France last workweek and it all went well. It was pleasing to see there was no far damage other than the cruciate ligament. That ‘s a big bonus because sometimes there can be cartilage problems that besides come along. ” On 20 March, Silvestre made his rejoinder in the Manchester United reserves in a 4–1 acquire over Manchester City. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] On 9 April 2008, Silvestre made his first gear starting signal for seven months in a Champions League quarter-final match versus Roma. [ 12 ]

arsenal [edit ]

Silvestre warming up before an Arsenal meet. A transfer to Bordeaux was mooted in the summer of 2008. however, it is believed that Silvestre turned the remove down to see out the remaining year of his contract, and potentially receive a tribute match at the end of the 2008–09 temper. [ 13 ] He received an offer to join Manchester City from director Mark Hughes and was set to join them ; however, during the medical interrogation, Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger called to offer Silvestre a remove to his club. Given the strong french presence at Arsenal, the competition between Manchester United and Manchester City, and the fact that Manchester City were not however a force in English football, Silvestre opted to join the London clubhouse. [ 6 ] The transfer to Arsenal was completed for an undisclosed fee on 20 August 2008, with Silvestre signing a biennial sign. [ 14 ] The transfer made Silvestre the first actor to transfer directly between Manchester United and Arsenal since Viv Anderson ( who moved in the opposite direction ) in 1987, and the first musician to move from United to Arsenal since Brian Kidd in 1974. He was given the issue 18 shirt, last wear by Pascal Cygan. Silvestre made his debut for the club in a 3–1 victory over Everton on 18 October 2008, his 250th game in English football. In his first Champions League game for Arsenal, against turkish side Fenerbahçe, he scored an own goal as Arsenal won 5–2. His first Premiership finish for Arsenal came against Tottenham Hotspur on 29 October 2008. [ 15 ] On 8 November 2008, Silvestre played his first game against erstwhile side Manchester United, in a fastness that Arsenal finally won 2–1. [ 16 ] Silvestre was adenine well separate of the team, where he played in the first base leg, for Arsenal ‘s 2009 Champions League semi final besides against that of Manchester United. [ 17 ] [ 18 ]

Werder Bremen [edit ]

After the 2009–10 season, Silvestre was released by Arsenal and became a release agentive role. He reportedly had offers from Fulham and Kayserispor, [ 19 ] but rather signed for Werder Bremen. He managed to score his first goal for Bremen, in a brilliant shot which Bremen won against Bundesliga Champions Borussia Dortmund 2–0. By the end of the temper, he made 26 league appearances, scoring a single league goal. He was released at the conclusion of the 2011–12 season. He was offered a trial at English cabaret West Ham United in September 2012. [ 20 ] In October 2012, Silvestre began training with his early club, Manchester United, in order to maintain his fitness in the hope of finding a newly club. Since then, he received an offer from indian clubhouse Dodsal F.C., with a view to joining them in time for their new temper in January 2013. [ 6 ]

Portland Timbers [edit ]

Silvestre spent time on trial with MLS side Portland Timbers ahead of the 2013 MLS campaign, and then moved to trial with chap Cascadia region MLS side Seattle Sounders FC. The Timbers obtained Silvestre ‘s MLS discovery rights from the Sounders in substitution for a first-round picking in the 2014 MLS Supplemental Draft and a conditional 2015 blueprint pick. [ 21 ] On 19 February 2013 it was announced that Silvestre had signed a biennial deal with Portland. [ 22 ] On 2 May 2013 Silvestre tore his leave front tooth cruciate ligament ( ACL ) in a crippled against the New England Revolution. He missed the rest of the season. [ 23 ] Silvestre subsequently had surgery to repair the wrong. [ 24 ] Despite his injury, Silvestre remained a song and engaged member of the team off the field and on social media. Silvestre was released by Portland on 28 January 2014. [ 25 ]

Chennaiyin [edit ]

On 20 September 2014, Silvestre joined newly formed indian Super League side Chennaiyin for four months and his sign was confirmed through Prashant Agarwal CEO of Kshatriya Sports, who confirmed that Silvestre signed the narrow for the season for more than $ 500,000 ( USD ). [ 26 ] [ 27 ] He started in their first meet on 15 October 2014, a 2–1 victory at FC Goa. [ 28 ] At the goal of the season, after playing 14 games for Chennaiyin, Silvestre announced that would be exploring options to extend his playing career in the Middle-East and if not, he would continue working on his coach badges, meaning that his time at Chennaiyin was over. [ 29 ]

International career [edit ]

Silvestre was previously a member of french junior team at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He earned his first senior cap for France on 27 February 2001 in a friendly against Germany that ended in a 1–0 win. He won the Confederations Cup both in 2001 and 2003 with France. Silvestre besides played one crippled in the french police squad that made the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but has not played since the tournament. He was recalled by Raymond Domenech for the 19 November 2008 friendly against Uruguay, but was an unused stand-in. Raymond Domenech said he was in controversy for a place at the 2010 World Cup, but he did not get a place. Silvestre was in the team for a friendly against Romania in 2011, but was an unused substitute .

style of play [edit ]

A versatile defender, Silvestre was capable of playing both as a left-sided full-back and as a centre-back. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] He was chiefly known for his tempo and stamen, although he besides possessed dependable distribution and was known for being comfortable on the ball. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]

After retirement [edit ]

Upon retiring, Silvestre took up a director of football character with former club Rennes in July 2015. He left by common consent on 22 December 2016. [ 35 ]

personal life [edit ]

Silvestre ‘s father, Franck, is from Guadeloupe. [ 36 ]

career statistics [edit ]

club [edit ]

International [edit ]

Appearances and goals by national team and year[38]

National team
Year
Apps
Goals

France

2001
9
1

2002
7
1

2003
10
0

2004
10
0

2005
0
0

2006
4
0

Total
40
2

Scores and results list France’s goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Silvestre goal.[41][42]

Honours [edit ]

Manchester United

France

References [edit ]