Cyril Théréau (; born 24 April 1983) 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 lea ...

who played as a striker. He represented

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

in France,

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

(two stints) and

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

in Belgium, Steaua București in Romania, and

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

and

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

in Italy.

Career

Early career

At senior level, Théréau started playing for

Gap FC Gap Hautes-Alpes Football Club (Occitan ''Gap Auts-Aups''; commonly referred to as simply Gap) was a French semi-professional association football club based in Gap, the capital city of the Hautes-Alpes department. The club was formed in 1970 a ...

in the "Honneur régional" league in France's seventh tier. He joined fourth-tier side

US Orléans Union Sportive Orléans Loiret Football (; commonly referred to as US Orléans or simply Orléans) is a French association football club based in Orléans. The club was founded in 1976 and currently play in Championnat National after being releg ...

in 2004 where he scored 12 goals in 10 matches.

Angers

After half a season with Orléans, he moved to

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 ...

side

Angers SCO Angers Sporting Club de l'Ouest, commonly referred to as Angers SCO (), is a French professional football club based in Angers in Pays de la Loire in western France. The club was founded in 1919 and plays in Ligue 1, the first division of Foot ...

in the winter transfer period. In his first professional match, a

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

round of 32 tie at

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (), known for sponsorship reasons as the Orange Vélodrome since June 2016, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and has ...

on 8 January 2005, he netted the third goal as Angers won 3–2 against

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

who at the time fielded

Fabien Barthez Fabien Alain Barthez (born 28 June 1971) is a French racing driver and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, Monaco, Manchester United and ...

in goal. In his second season at Angers, with whom he had been relegated to the third-division

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 ...

, he attained 8 goals in 29 league matches.

Charleroi

In summer 2006, Théréau joined

. Having bagged three goals in his first four matches, he left the club in the same transfer period.

FCSB

On 29 August 2006, Théréau signed a four-year contract with

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of the Romanian football le ...

. The reported transfer fee paid to Charleroi was €1 million while Théréau's salary multiplied by seven to about €240,000 annually. The move happened after the Steaua's coach saw him play against

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

and thought he could make a good replacement for the injured Victoraș Iacob. Months after playing in the

for Angers, Théréau made an appearance in the Champions League being substituted on in the 70th minute in Steaua's 1–4 win away to

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

on 13 September 2006. He was used in all six matches in the group stage without scoring as FCSB failed to progress from the group which also included

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and

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 ...

. He scored his first hat-trick for FCSB in a win against

FC Naţional FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

in the Romanian top division on 12 November 2006. Théréau became a fan favourite at the club and this did not change when he was sent off in the Bucharest derby against Dinamo. In total, he amassed 10 goals in 17 leagues games.

Anderlecht

On 26 June 2007, Théréau agreed to a four-year deal with Belgian champions

R.S.C. Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the mos ...

for a transfer fee of about €3 million.

Return to Charleroi

He returned to

on 14 January 2008, initially on loan. On 29 February 2008, he struck a brace against title contenders

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

. Charleroi secured Théréau's services permanently on 9 June 2008 on a three-year contract. On 10 March 2010, he reached a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in a 4–1 defeat of relegation rivals

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

– his club's first win of the year – which all but guaranteed Charleroi's

Belgian Pro league The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

status.

Chievo

On 24 August 2010, Théréau signed for Chievo Verona in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

. In October 2010, he scored his first goal against

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

. By the end of his spell with Chievo, having spent four seasons there, he had made 129 appearances in all competitions for the club and with 26 league goals he was the Chievo's most prolific foreign goalscorer of all time.

Udinese

During the 2014 summer transfer window, Théréau signed for

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian fo ...

on an annual salary of €700,000. In his first season, he scored 10 goals. On 23 August 2015, he scored the decisive goal as Udinese beat

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

1–0. It was the first time in history Juventus lost on their home debut. He completed the 2015–16 season scoring 11 goals and contributing three assists in 36 league matches for his club.

Fiorentina

On 31 August 2017, Théréau signed a new contract with another

club

, after three years with

Cagliari loan

On 31 January 2019, Théréau joined

on loan until 30 June 2019.

Style of play

Théréau is a skillful striker, who can score from practically every position. He reached fame in Belgium when he scored a goal after dribbling from the middle of the pitch to the penalty box. Although he is very tall, he has good ball shooting skills and is a technical player.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thereau, Cyril 1983 births Living people People from Privas Footballers from Ardèche French men's footballers Men's association football forwards Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Championnat National 2 players Belgian Pro League players Liga I players Serie A players Angers SCO players FCSB players R.S.C. Anderlecht players AC ChievoVerona players Udinese Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players Cagliari Calcio players French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania French expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century French sportsmen