Sébastien Hamel (born 20 November 1975) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Career

Monaco

Born in

Arpajon Arpajon () is a commune in the Essonne department in the Île-de-France region of northern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Arpajonnais'' or ''Arpajonnaises''. The commune has been awarded three flowers by the ''National ...

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Fren ...

as a trainee in 1991 before turning professional in 1993. He failed to make an appearance in his one professional season with Monaco and joined fellow

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

side,

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, ver ...

, in the summer of 1994.

Le Havre

Hamel again failed to become a regular for his new club, going three seasons without a league appearance until he made his debut in the 1997–98 season. He established himself as the number one goalkeeper at the club in his final season with them, and at the end of the 1999–2000 season, with Le Havre relegated to

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

, he moved to

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'' ...

in order to stay in the top French division.

Lens

Hamel only spent one unsuccessful season with Lens. After failing to make an appearance in any competition, he left to join fellow Ligue 1 side,

FC Lorient Football Club Lorient Bretagne Sud (; commonly referred to FC Lorient or simply Lorient) is a French association football club based in Lorient, Brittany. The club was founded in 1926 and currently competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of Frenc ...

in 2001.

Lorient

Hamel played inconsistently at Lorient, appearing for them in 15 league matches, and after Lorient were relegated at the end of the season, Hamel again moved to preserve his top flight status, joining

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

qualifiers

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or simply Auxerre (), is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division ...

. Whilst at Lorient Hamel played in the

2002 Coupe de France Final The 2002 Coupe de France Final was a football match held at Stade de France, Saint-Denis on 11 May 2002, that saw FC Lorient defeat SC Bastia 1–0 thanks to a goal by Jean-Claude Darcheville. The final is also famous for a post-game prank ...

in which they beat

SC Bastia Sporting Club Bastiais ( co, Sporting Club di Bastia, commonly referred to as SC Bastia or simply Bastia) is a Corsican association football club based in Bastia on the island of Corsica. The club plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of French ...

Auxerre

Hamel spent four seasons at Auxerre and made three appearances. One came in the 2004–05 season and two more in the 2005–06 season. After his contract expired at the end of the season, he joined

Olympique Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...

in the summer of 2006.

Marseille

Again Hamel was only used as a backup goalkeeper, and after two seasons with Marseille and not one appearance, he once again changed clubs, joining Toulouse for the beginning of the 2008–09 season.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamel, Sebastien 1975 births Living people People from Arpajon Footballers from Essonne French men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers AS Monaco FC players Le Havre AC players RC Lens players AJ Auxerre players Olympique de Marseille players Toulouse FC players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players 20th-century French people 21st-century French people