Michel Rio (born 7 March 1963) is a French former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Rio played at a professional level in the Division 1 (later renamed Ligue 1) for

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est ...

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, ve ...

, and in the Division 2 (later renamed Ligue 2) for

Guingamp Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 6,895 as of 2017, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Gui ...

and Stade Briochin. He made 237 total appearances in the Division 1, scoring 29 goals. On 15 February 1992, Rio scored the fastest goal in Division 1 history, putting the ball in the back of net after eight seconds of play in an encounter between Caen and

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

. On 21 August 2022, over thirty years later, Paris Saint-Germain forward

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is renowned for his drib ...

scored a goal against

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

that was clocked at eight seconds as well, thereby equalling Rio's longstanding record. However, according to newspaper ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor wa ...

'' and several other calculations, Mbappé's goal was scored slightly later, signifying that Rio's record remained unmatched.

External links

1963 births Living people French footballers Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players French Division 3 (1971–1993) players French Division 4 (1978–1993) players Championnat National players Championnat National 3 players US Montagnarde players Stade Briochin players En Avant Guingamp players FC Nantes players FC Metz players Stade Malherbe Caen players Le Havre AC players Association football midfielders French football managers {{france-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub