mathieu valbuena International career

Mathieu Valbuena French pronunciation: valbwena]; born 28 September 1984 is a French football player who currently plays for Marseille in Ligue 1. He plays as an attacking midfielder. Due to his small stature, Valbuena was given the nickname Le Petit vélo, which translates to "the small bike".This is a play on Valbuena's size and the fact that Marseille's home ground is called the Stade Vélodrome. He is also a French international making his debut on 26 May 2010 in a friendly match against Costa Rica.
Contents
* 1 Early and personal life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Early career
o 2.2 Marseille
o 2.3 International career
* 3 Career statistics
o 3.1 Club
o 3.2 International
o 3.3 International goals
* 4 Honours
o 4.1 Club
* 5 Notes
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Early and personal life
Valbuena was born in the southwestern commune of Bruges in the Gironde department. He is of Spanish origin through his father who is originally from the Spanish city Valladolid. Valbuena's father currently works for the city council of Bordeaux. working towards becoming a football player and during his studies, Valbuena worked as a sports shop salesman.
Career
Early career
Valbuena began his career playing for the biggest club in the department, FC Girondins de Bordeaux. After spending a year there, he was dropped by the club due to his small stature.[3] Valbuena then moved to a local club, Langon-Castets, who were playing in the Championnat de France amateur 2, the fifth division of French football, where he impressed scouts. After spending two years with the club, he moved to Championnat National side Libourne Saint-Seurin. In his two seasons with the club, Valbuena's play went through a major upgrade. He played in 53 matches and scored 10 goals. His performance during the 2005–06 season was beneficial to the club playing in 29 matches and scoring 9 goals helping the club achieve promotion to Ligue 2, though they would get relegated back to National the following season. For his efforts that season, he was named the league's Player of the Year.
Marseille
Due to his success with Libourne Saint-Seurin, Valbuena services were in high demand. On 9 June 2006, his dream move to Ligue 1 was complete securing a move to French club Olympique de Marseille agreeing to a three-year deal.
Mathieu's career with Marseille initially got off to a bad start picking up an ankle injury while training that same summer. Due to the injury, he made his debut late in the season against Valenciennes coming on as a substitute in Marseille's 1–0 victory. He made 14 more appearances that season, mainly as a substitute, including a match where he scored his first goal for the club, a game-winner in the 86th minute against Saint-Étienne.
The following season saw a drastic improvement from Valbuena, primarily due to the player staying healthy and the departure of Franck Ribéry. New manager Eric Gerets increased Valbuena's playing time and the player displayed amazing form. One memorable moment during the season came when Valbuena scored a goal in a UEFA Champions League group stage match against English club Liverpool at Anfield.[4] The goal turned out to be the game-winner with Marseille upsetting Liverpool 1–0. Due to his promising performances, Marseille awarded him a contract extension, which initially kept him with the side until 2010. Valbuena later signed a new extension in April 2008, which now ties him to the club until 2013.
International career
clubs of small stature early in his career, Valbuena did not receive any call-ups to any of the France national youth football team squads. Due to his impressive performances with Marseille, he was awarded a call up to the senior side by coach Raymond Domenech for their matches against England and Mali. However, he picked up an injury and was forced to miss out.
On 11 May 2010, Valbuena was named to the 30-man preliminary list by Domenech to play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Valbuena's call up was considered surprising despite the player playing well with his parent club who won the league and league cup double. Many journalists in the French media associated Valbuena's call-up to the team to Franck Ribéry's call-up four years ago ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Valbuena was later named to the 23-man team to compete in the competition. made his national team debut on 26 May 2010 in a friendly match against Costa Rica appearing as a substitute in the second half. After 16 minutes on the field, Valbuena scored the game-winning goal in the team's 2–1 victory. Valbuena then followed this up by scoring against England in a friendly at Wembley on 17 November 2010.
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena
mathieu valbuena