 Rothen in 2008 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Jérôme René Marcel Rothen[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1978-03-31)31 March 1978 (age 47)[2] | ||
| Place of birth | Châtenay-Malabry,[2] Hauts-de-Seine, France | ||
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)[2] | ||
| Position | Winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1983–1988 | AS Meudon | ||
| 1988–1991 | Versailles | ||
| 1991–1994 | INF Clairefontaine | ||
| 1994–1997 | Caen | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1997–2000 | Caen | 98 | (11) |
| 2000–2002 | Troyes | 46 | (4) |
| 2002–2004 | Monaco | 82 | (5) |
| 2004–2010 | Paris Saint-Germain | 139 | (10) |
| 2009 | →Rangers (loan) | 4 | (0) |
| 2010 | →Ankaragücü (loan) | 12 | (0) |
| 2011–2013 | Bastia | 60 | (7) |
| 2013 | Caen | 8 | (1) |
| Total | 449 | (38) | |
| International career | |||
| 2003–2007 | France | 13 | (1) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Jérôme René Marcel Rothen (born 31 March 1978) is a French former professionalfootballer who played as awinger. He is a football pundit.
Rothen won 13 caps for theFrance national football team.[3] He represented his country at theUEFA Euro 2004 and won theFIFA Confederations Cup with France in2003. At club level, Rothen won theCoupe de France once and theCoupe de la Ligue twice withParis Saint-Germain. He also won the Coupe de la Ligue withMonaco. Rothen was a skilled winger who specialised infree kicks,crossing and passing.
Rothen underwent training at the famousClairefontaine Football Academy in France.[4]
He started his career withCaen. He then moved toTroyes AC where he played under managerAlain Perrin.
Rothen was bought byAS Monaco on 1 January 2002 for €5 million. With Monaco, Rothen won theCoupe de la Ligue in2003.[5] He also helped the club reach thefinal of theChampions League in May 2004, where they lost toFC Porto 3–0.[6]
A native of theParis metropolitan area, Rothen fulfilled a childhood dream when he signed for the capital sideParis Saint-Germain in 2004 for €11 million.[7] He rejected lucrative offers from more powerful European clubs such asManchester United,Chelsea andValencia in order to join PSG, the club he supported during his youth.[8]
In the French capital, his dream soon turned sour. Often injured, Rothen appeared in only 18 league games and 2 Champions League fixtures in his debut season.[9] 2005-06 was equally disappointing. Under the orders ofLaurent Fournier and thenGuy Lacombe, the left winger struggled to reproduce the kind of displays that had made him famous at Monaco.[citation needed] Often injured, he nonetheless took part in aCoupe de France win over fierce rivalsOlympique de Marseille.
In the second half of 2006, returning from injury, Rothen found himself cast aside by Guy Lacombe.[10] In December 2006, he faked an injury in order to organize a transfer deal that would materialize during the January transfer window. He was then tipped to joinLille OSC, but then learned about Lacombe's imminent sacking from Paris Saint-Germain. The arrival of new coachPaul Le Guen in January 2007 convinced him to stay put. Gradually, he began to recover his best form.[citation needed] With the club battling against relegation, Rothen's revival was one of the factors that enabled PSG to save their spot in the top flight.[citation needed]
In the summer of 2007, several clubs expressed interest for the midfielder, including championsOlympique Lyonnais, who were looking for a replacement for the outgoingFlorent Malouda.[citation needed] Rothen stayed in Paris, and following a great start to the 2007–08 season, was voted as the league's player of the month in September. He regained a spot in theFrance national football team and even netted a free-kick on 13 October 2007 against the Faroe Islands.[11]
In 2007–08, Paris Saint-Germain struggled even more than the previous season. In such a context, Rothen became an increasingly important player due to his creativity and crossing ability.[citation needed] Such was his importance to the club that French media would describe PSG as "dependent upon Rothen" and "playing a game that is excessively left-sided", the flank which the player occupied.[citation needed] During those years, several signings likeSergey Semak,Bonaventure Kalou andWilliamis Souza were made with the aim of reducing the side's dependence on Rothen and introduce some kind of creative threat on the right flank too.[citation needed] None of these solutions worked, and PSG continued to rely upon Rothen to pull them out of the relegation trap in May 2008.[12]
2008-09 was his last season in Paris. He managed to make 34 league appearances, his best tally in a single season since 2003–04 in Monaco atAS Monaco.[citation needed] However, he had lost much of his importance to the club, with the arrival of other creative players such asStéphane Sessègnon and former Monaco teammateLudovic Giuly.[citation needed] In the summer of 2009, Paul Le Guen left the club to be replaced byAntoine Kombouaré, who deemed Rothen surplus to requirements and banished him to the reserves squad.[13]
On 1 September 2009, Rothen agreed to joinScottish Premier League clubRangers on a one-year loan deal from PSG.[14] He made his debut for the club on 12 September 2009 againstMotherwell. He made his first appearance in the Champions league for Rangers in their 1–1 draw away toStuttgart.[15]
After going back to France Rothen's relationship with Rangers soured and the club were looking to move Rothen on, as he was deemed surplus to requirements, rather than pay his salary for the remainder of the season when it looked like he would not figure in the squad.
Rothen flew to Turkey on 22 January 2010 to sign a six-month loan deal withAnkaragücü after rejecting advances from Greek sidesAEL,Kavala andIraklis. On 29 January 2010, he signed a six-month contract with Ankaragücü.
Almost a year after Paris resigned his contract, Rothen signed in May 2011 a two-year contract with theCorsican club ofSC Bastia, newly promoted to the FrenchLigue 2.[16] Rothen made his team debut on 29 July 2011 againstIstres, and Bastia won the match 3–1.[17] He won the Ligue 2 title with the team in the2011-12 season and was selected as theLigue 2 Player of the Year.
In July 2013, Rothen rejoined his first senior club, Caen.[18] On 1 January 2014, he announced his retirement from football.[19]
Rothen made his debut on 29 March 2003 againstMalta.[20]
He was a member of theFrance national football team atEuro 2004, where he made a brief substitute appearance in their defeat byGreece in the quarter-finals. Rothen was not selected in the2006 FIFA World Cup squad for France. He was recalled to the squad forEuro 2008 qualifying and, on 10 October 2007, marked his comeback with a superbly taken free-kick against theFaroe Islands, the last scored free-kick for France as of 13 June 2015.[21]
On 8 October 2008, Rothen published his autobiographyYou're Not Going To Believe Me. The book has generated significant attention in the media, notably for its description of an incident concerningZinedine Zidane, his former teammate in the France national team.
According to Rothen, the incident occurred during the second leg of Monaco's 2004 Champions League quarter-final win over Real Madrid. Monaco had overturned a 4–2 first leg deficit, and were 3–1 up with seconds left to play when Zidane tackled Rothen from behind. "It was a foul and I went down, admittedly I made a bit more of it, but anyone would have done the same, as we were trying to buy some seconds," Rothen wrote. "Zidane leant over me and said: 'Get up, you son of a bitch.'"[22]
The expression Rothen claims Zidane used, 'fils de pute', is a variation on what Marco Materazzi is alleged to have said to Zidane before the head-butt that proved the iconic moment of the 2006 World Cup final. "I was surprised but put it down to his frustration, and I expected him to apologise at the end of the game, but he said nothing," Rothen continued. "I thought the next time we saw each other with the France team he would say sorry, and then it would be forgotten, but he didn't and that disappointed me."[23]
In a subsequent interview with the French newspaperL'Équipe, Rothen stated he did not intend to smear Zidane's image by publicizing the incident. He also denies having received pressure from the latter's camp to remove the offending passage, as had been reported in the press.[24]
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | League cup[b] | Europe | Other | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Caen | 1997–98 | Division 2 | 23 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 26 | 3 | ||
| 1998–99 | 37 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | – | 39 | 5 | ||||
| 1999–2000 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 39 | 3 | ||||
| Total | 98 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | – | 114 | 11 | ||||
| Troyes | 2000–01 | Division 1 | 30 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | – | 38 | 4 | ||
| 2001–02 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 2 | – | 30 | 2 | |||
| Total | 46 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 2 | – | 68 | 6 | |||
| Monaco | 2001–02 | Division 1 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 15 | 1 | ||
| 2002–03 | Ligue 1 | 37 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | – | – | 42 | 4 | |||
| 2003–04 | 34 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12[c] | 1 | – | 49 | 1 | |||
| Total | 82 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 1 | – | 106 | 6 | |||
| Paris Saint-Germain | 2004–05 | Ligue 1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2[c] | 0 | 1[d] | 0 | 22 | 1 |
| 2005–06 | 28 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 33 | 1 | ||||
| 2006–07 | 27 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4[e] | 0 | 1[d] | 1 | 36 | 3 | ||
| 2007–08 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | – | – | 40 | 4 | ||||
| 2008–09 | 34 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10[e] | 1 | – | 49 | 4 | |||
| Total | 139 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 180 | 13 | ||
| Paris Saint-Germain II | 2009–10 | Championnat National U19 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0 | ||||
| Rangers | 2009–10 | Scottish Premier League | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3[c] | 0 | – | 8 | 0 | |
| Ankaragücü | 2009–10 | Süper Lig | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | 12 | 0 | |||
| Paris Saint-Germain II | 2010–11 | Championnat National U19 | 2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Bastia | 2011–12 | Ligue 2 | 32 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 35 | 5 | ||
| 2012–13 | Ligue 1 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | – | 30 | 3 | |||
| Total | 60 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | – | – | 65 | 8 | ||||
| Career total | 414 | 35 | 31 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 43 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 516 | 41 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 2003 | 3 | 0 |
| 2004 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2005 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2006 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2007 | 2 | 1 | |
| Total | 13 | 1 | |
Troyes
Monaco
Paris Saint-Germain
Bastia
France
Individual
France squads | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
