Gabriel Obertan

Gabriel Obertan is a winger of Newcastle United. He was born on 26 February 1989 in Pantin, France.

In 1997 Obertan joined the Paris-Pantin football academy and spent first years of his youth career there. In 2002 Gabriel drew the attention of Paris and was invited on a trial. After a spectacular demonstration game and a series of tests, the footballer was offered to move to the youth system of the club and he accepted the offer the same year. Gabriel trained with the club during one year till 2003, when he received a number of other offers.

Paris-Saint Germain won the young talent over to their academy, where the winger spent another year. In 2004 he moved to INF Clairefontaine and then to Bordeaux in 2005. His youth career ended there and segued into the professional one.

In 2006 the French forward signed for Bordeaux. His pro-football career took off in 2006/2007, when he took part in quite a lot of matches. Gabriel continued to perform for the club till January 2009, when he was sent on loan to French side Lorient. Obertan spent the rest part of the 2008/2009 season there, made 15 appearances for the temporary club and scored one goal.

In the summer 2009 Gabriel officially ended his career in Bordeaux, where he took part in 54 games and netted three goals. The footballer joined English side Manchester United and spent two years with ‘The Red Devils’. Obertan made 14 appearances, but he did not manage to establish himself under Manchester United head coach Alex Ferguson.

In 2011 the French player transferred to the other United from Newcastle. Nowadays Gabriel is one of the pivots of team’s attacking line and he helped his club to reach a lot of new heights during Premier League matches.

From 2004 till 2010 Gabriel Obertan was capped 49 times for the France national U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 teams and contributed nine goals.