Damien Le Tallec

Damien Vincent Denis Le Tallec (born 19 April 1990) is a French-Russian professional footballer who plays for Montpellier. He is the younger brother of striker Anthony Le Tallec, and cousin of Florent Sinama Pongolle.[2] Like his older brother, Le Tallec is a France youth international, first appearing with the under-15 team and has appeared in several tournaments around the world for his nation. He started as a second striker, with possibility to play on both wings. In later career, he has primarily played as a defensive midfielder, being capable of playing as a central defender since the time with Red Star Belgrade.

Damien Le Tallec
Le Tallec with Mordovia Saransk in October 2015
Personal information
Full name Damien Vincent Denis Le Tallec[1]
Date of birth (1990-04-19) 19 April 1990
Place of birth Poissy, France
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Centre-back, defensive midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Montpellier
Number 14
Youth career
1995–2005 Le Havre
2005–2009 Rennes
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2009 Rennes 0 (0)
2009–2011 Borussia Dortmund 4 (0)
2009–2011 → Borussia Dortmund II (loan) 43 (14)
2012 Nantes 8 (0)
2012–2014 Hoverla 41 (7)
2014–2015 Mordovia 44 (1)
2016–2018 Red Star Belgrade 76 (6)
2018– Montpellier 64 (5)
National team‡
France U15
France U16
2006–2007 France U17 8 (4)
2007–2008 France U18
2008–2009 France U19 9 (3)
2011 France U20 4 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 August 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 00:33, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

Club career

Early career

Le Tallec was born in Poissy. Like his older brother, Damien began his career at Le Havre joining the club at only five years of age. He spent a full decade at the club and began drawing interests from several clubs in Ligue 1. He eventually joined Stade Rennais F.C., who were known for the promising youth academy.

Rennes

Le Tallec quickly established himself at the club joining fellow prospects Yann M'Vila, Yohann Lasimant, Abdoul Camara, and Yacine Brahimi as the club's most promising players. The foursome were particularly instrumental in the club's successes on the youth level, helping their age groups win the 2006 edition of the under-16 Tournoi Carisport, as well as capturing the under-18 championship for the 2006–07 season, and also winning the Coupe Gambardella in 2008, scoring an impressive eight goals in seven matches. In the Coupe Gambardella final against Bordeaux, he scored the final goal in the team's convincing 3–0 victory. Following the 2006–07 season, on 11 August, Le Tallec, alongside teammates M'Vila and Camara, signed his first professional contract, agreeing to a three-year deal.[3] He spent the entire season in the reserves, before being officially promoted to the senior squad and assigned the number 22 shirt for the 2008–09 season.

Though on the first-team, Le Tallec began the season with the club's Championnat de France amateur team. He appeared in 22 matches, scoring four goals, helping the side finish 1st among professional clubs in their group, thus qualifying for the playoffs, where they lost to Lyon in the semi-finals.[4]

Borussia Dortmund

Following the season, news came that Le Tallec had become unsettled at Rennes, primarily due to his limited first-team opportunities at the club. Eager to begin his professional career,[5] he was primarily linked to La Liga club Valencia and was reportedly in the process of joining the club, but due to a shake up in the club's front office, the move was put on hold and eventually called off.[6] He was later linked with moves to German clubs Hertha BSC and VfB Stuttgart. Two months later, on 8 August 2009, another German club, Borussia Dortmund, announced that they had signed the player to a three-year contract and that he will be gradually introduced to the first team.[7][8]

Nantes

On 31 January 2012, Le Tallec returned to France, signing with Nantes in Ligue 2.[9]

Hoverla

The following two seasons, Le Tallec played with FC Hoverla Uzhhorod in the Ukrainian Premier League.[10] The club had just won the second tier last season and were searching for reinforcements, among them, Le Tallec. Despite the fact that during the two seasons Le Tallec spent in Hoverla, Hoverla performed rather mid-down table, Le Tallec was regular and his performances caught the attention of numerous clubs.

Mordovia

In the summer of 2014, Le Tallec moved to Russia and signed with Premier League side FC Mordovia Saransk.[10] Mordovia had just won the second tier and got promoted to the Premier League. Same as in Hoverla, at Mordovia, Le Tallec also performed regularly. By the winter-break of the 2015–16 season, coach Miodrag Božović, a specialist of Russian football as he had just spent 8 years coaching in Russian Premier League, was in held of Serbian side Red Star Belgrade, who were forming a strong team in order to take the title from their main rivals FK Partizan, who had become chronic winners in the last decade, and in that built-up of the team, Božović made a priority of signing both Mordovia players, Le Tallec and Mitchell Donald, and both ended up moving to Belgrade.

Red Star Belgrade

On 29 January 2016, Le Tallec signed a 2.5-year contract with Red Star Belgrade.[11] In his league debut with Red Star less than a month later, he scored a goal against FK Mladost Lučani.[12] At the end of his first season at Red Star, they won the Serbian championship and qualified for a berth in the Champions League qualifying rounds.

Having played most of the former season as central midfielder, along Mitchell Donald, since start of the 2016–17 season, Le Tallec was often adapted as central defender by Red Star coach Miodrag Božović.[13] While with Red Star Belgrade, Le Tallec made 104 appearances and scored 7 goals in all competitions and won 2 Serbian SuperLiga titles, between 2016 and 2018. In May 2018, Le Tallec announced that he would leave the club definitely in the summer the same year, after the end of his contract.[14]

Montpellier

On 20 June 2018, Le Tallec returned to his home country and signed with Ligue 1 club Montpellier.[15]

International career

Le Tallec has featured for all of France's national youth teams, beginning with the under-15 team, earning his first selection in March 2006. He was a member of the under-17 team that reached the semi-finals at the 2007 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, before losing to England. He scored two goals in the tournament, both of them in the same game against Germany.[16] He later played with the same under-17 team at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup held in South Korea.[17] Le Tallec appeared in all five matches, scoring four goals, one against Haiti,[18] a brace against Tunisia in the Round of 16,[19] and one against Spain whom defeated France on penalties in the quarterfinals. In total with the under-17s, Le Tallec scored 14 goals in 18 appearances.[20]

With the under-19 team, Le Tallec appeared in 15 matches, scoring 6 goals. He scored three of those goals during the qualification process for the UEFA U-19 Championship against the Republic of Ireland,[21] Liechtenstein,[22] and Romania.[23] The victory over Romania assured qualification to the tournament.[24] At the tournament, held in the Ukraine, Le Tallec appeared in all four matches, helping France reach the semi-finals before suffering defeat to England.[25]

In 2019, he started the process of applying for citizenship of Russia (his wife is Russian, his son has dual Russian-French citizenship and they own a house in Moscow). Le Tallec said he would be honoured if he will be called up to the Russia national football team after the process is complete.[26] In April 2020, he received permanent residency permit in Russia and said his citizenship application is 90% complete, but is taking longer than expected due to restrictions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.[27]

Career statistics

Club
As of end of 2019–20 season[10]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Continental Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Rennes 2008–09 Ligue 1 0000000000
Borussia Dortmund 2009–10 Bundesliga 4010——50
2010–11 001020—30
2011–12 0000000020
Total 4020200080
Borussia Dortmund II 2009–10 3. Liga 82———82
2010–11 Regionalliga West 2411———2411
2011–12 111———111
Total 4314———4314
Nantes 2011–12 Ligue 2 80———80
Hoverla 2012–13 Premier League 20520——225
2013–14 21210——222
Total 41730——447
Mordovia 2014–15 Premier League 29120——311
2015–16 15100——151
Total 44220——462
Red Star Belgrade 2015–16 SuperLiga 142———142
2016–17 3636160—484
2017–18 26110150—421
Total 76671210—1047
Montpellier 2018–19 Ligue 1 3631000—373
2019–20 282300020332
Total 645400020705
Career total 280341812302032335

Honours

Club

Rennes

Borussia Dortmund

Red Star Belgrade

References
  1. "Damien Vincent Denis Le Tallec". Leballonrond. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  2. "Un pétard a atterri sur mon pied et ça a explosé!" sofoot.com
  3. "Premier contrat pro pour Le Tallec, M'Vila et Camara". Stade Rennais F.C. 11 August 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  4. "Réserves, demi-finale : Lyon élimine Rennes aux tirs au but". Stade Rennais F.C. (in French). 2 June 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  5. "rennes / damien le tallec". Mercato365 (in French). 13 June 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  6. "FC Valence: D.Le Tallec tout proche". Mercato365 (in French). 5 June 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  7. "Damien Le Tallec signs for Borussia Dortmund". Borussia Dortmund. 9 August 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  8. "D. Le Tallec, 3 ans à Dortmund". L'Equipe (in French). 9 August 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  9. "Nantes sign Damien Le Tallec from Borussia Dortmund". goal.com. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  10. Damien Le Tallec at Soccerway
  11. Mondo: Le Talek i zvanično!. (in Serbian) 29 January 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016
  12. N. Todorović. Blic Sport: DVADESETA POBEDA U NIZU Prvenac Le Taleka i gol Vijeire za nastavak Zvezdine serije! (in Serbian) 20 February 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016
  13. Le Talek: Štoper kad Božović naredi ("Le Tallec: Central defender when Božović demands so") at Večernje novosti, 11 August 2016, Retrieved 18 November 2016 (in Serbian)
  14. "Le Talek se oprostio od Zvezde: Bila je velika čast igrati u ovom fantastičnom klubu". mozzartsport.com (in Serbian). 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  15. "Damien Le Tallec signe au MHSC". Montpellier HSC official website (in French). 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  16. "France 2 – 1 Germany". UEFA. 4 May 2007. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  17. "France Korea 2007". FIFA.com. 1 August 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  18. "Haiti – France". FIFA.com. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  19. "Tunisia – France". 29 August 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  20. "France – Spain". FIFA.com. 1 September 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  21. "France 2 – 0 Republic of Ireland". UEFA. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  22. "France 4 – 0 Liechtenstein". UEFA. 21 November 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  23. "Romania 0 – 3 France". UEFA. 23 May 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  24. "France come from afar to claim finals berth". UEFA. 23 May 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  25. "Outnumbered France succumb to England". UEFA. 30 July 2009. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  26. "Регистрация Дамьена: француз Ле Таллек хочет сыграть на Евро за Россию" [Damien's Registration: Frenchman Le Tallec wants to play for Russia at the Euros] (in Russian). Izvestia. 19 December 2019.
  27. "Ле Таллек: 90% работы по получению российского паспорта сделано" [Le Tallec: 90% of work to acquire Russian passport is done] (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 17 April 2020.
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