Sébastien Nicolas Puygrenier (born 28 January 1982) is a French retired 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 lea ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Career

France

Born in

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

, Puygrenier began his career at Stade Rennais, Puygrenier made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

debut in the 4–1 defeat at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 2003. He started the next two matches, but these were to be his last games for the club before joining Nancy on loan for the 2003–04 season. After playing 27 games in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, 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 Ligue de Football Prof ...

that season, Puygrenier spent a further season on loan at Nancy, with 20 appearances as the club won promotion. League rules prevented him from staying on loan at a rival Ligue 1 club so he was signed permanently in 2005. Puygrenier scored his only league goal to date on 28 August in the 6–0 win over his old club. He also scored Nancy's opener in the 3–0 win over

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. He was voted Fans' Player of the Year for 2006–07, and named in the Ligue 1 2007–08 team of the year the following season, where he helped Nancy stay unexpectedly in the top 3 for most of the season.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

On 31 July 2008, he signed a four-year contract with Zenit Saint Petersburg. He took part in the team's victory in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup, but struggled to hold down a regular first-team berth. As Portuguese centre-halves Bruno Alves and Fernando Meira joined the club, it became increasingly evident that Puygrenier's future lay outside of Saint Petersburg, and a string of loan deals followed - firstly to Bolton Wanderers and then two spells at

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation (FFF) and currently ...

in Ligue 1. After failing to impress in France, Monaco declined the option to recruit Puygrenier permanently, and he returned to Zenit who made it known that he was instantly available for transfer, even being described as 'definitely a mistake of our scouts' by general director Maxim Mitrofanov, who also criticised the defender for refusing to lower his wage demands in order to engineer a move away from the club despite having no prospects of achieving any playing time and not being considered a part of the Zenit squad by manager Luciano Spalletti.

Loan to Bolton Wanderers

In January 2009, he joined

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

on loan for the rest of the season. His one goal for Bolton came on 31 January, in a 3–2 home victory over

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

. It was Bolton's 4000th goal in the top division of English football.

Loan to Monaco

On 14 July 2009, Puygrenier agreed to a loan deal to

Nancy

Puygrenier moved to AS Nancy midway through the 2011–2012 league campaign.

Karabükspor

He signed for Turkish team Kardemir Karabükspor in July 2013, agreeing to a two-year deal.

Auxerre

In July 2014 he signed a one-year contract with French team

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or by the abbreviation AJA, is a French professional association football, football club based in the Communes of France, commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club plays in L ...

Créteil

In July 2016, Puygrenier joined

Championnat National The Championnat National (), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, is the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, the Championnat National operates on a system of ...

side

Créteil Créteil () is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. Créteil is the ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Val-de-Marne Departments of France, dep ...

on a one-year contract with the option of second.

Honours

Nancy *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

: 2005–06

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Puygrenier, Sebastien 1982 births Living people French men's footballers Men's association football defenders Stade Rennais FC players AS Nancy Lorraine players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players AS Monaco FC players Kardemir Karabükspor footballers AJ Auxerre players US Créteil-Lusitanos players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Premier League players Russian Premier League players Süper Lig players French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey 21st-century French sportsmen