Éric Abidal

Éric Abidal is a defender, born on September 11, 1979 in Lyon, France.

Professional career of the French footballer began in 2000 with AS Monaco FC that signed Éric for his first ever professional contract. Over two years the defender occasionally appeared in the club’s main squad but a place in the starting line-up was out of the question as the head coach had many other candidates for the position.

In 2002, Éric was offered to join LOSC Lille, which he accepted shortly as he wanted badly to play in the starting line-up. Since 2002 Éric has been among the LOSC Lille main squad players and made 60 appearances for the club.

After the 2003/04 season Éric Abidal joined Olympique Lyonnais to come back to the city where he was born. He played an important role in the club as he acquired enough practical experience in other French teams. Over three years (2004-2007) Éric has played 76 matches.

In 2007, Éric’s career soared even higher after he was offered a contract with FC Barcelona. Éric did not waste his time considering the transfer and in the summer of the same year he signed a contract with the club. The transfer cost 9 mln euros and the contract featured a clause according to which Éric could be sold by FC Barcelona for 90 mln euros, which is a standard practice for the Catalan club management. Since 2007 Éric had become one of the team’s key players. In 2011 and 2012 Abidal underwent liver surgeries and struggled to return to professional football. All in all he had played more than 120 matches for the club.

In 2013 the French was released from Barcelona and joined Monaco on a free transfer. One year later he switched for Olympiacos.

Since 2004 the player has been invited to play for the France national team and made 67 appearances.