Daniel Congré (born 5 April 1985) is a French 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 plays as a defender for

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), 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 ...

club

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

. He can operate all across

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, although he is most adept at

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He is noted for his pace.

Club career

Born in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, France to Martiniquais parents. Congré arrived at his hometown club

in the summer of 1996 at the age of 11, joining as a youth player. He quickly ascended through the ranks and eventually made his professional debut during the 2004–05 season in a league match against

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

coming on as a halftime substitute. He remained on the senior squad for the rest of the season making 23 total appearances that season. The following two seasons, his play was heavily limited, mainly due to fracturing his left foot in a match against RC Lens on 20 March 2006. The injury forced him to miss not only the rest of the 2005–06 season, but also the beginning of the 2006–07 season, in which Toulouse qualified for the

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 competit ...

. Congré endured more injuries during the 2007–08 season. A shoulder injury forced him to miss Toulouse's Champions League third round qualifying matches with

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, where Toulouse were eliminated 0–5 on aggregate. He returned for

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. A ...

play, but picked up another injury forcing him to miss the rest of the season. He appeared in only 42 league matches over those three years. He returned to form for the 2008–09 season appearing in 29 league matches and scoring one goal against

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, very cl ...

contributing to Toulouse's 5th-place finish. He also scored a goal in Toulouse's 8–0 defeat of local side FCE Schirrhein in the Coupe de France. He recently signed a contract extension with the club through 2014, but on 21 June 2012 he agreed to a transfer to Montpellier HSC. On 5 July 2021, Congré joined

club

on a two-year deal.

International career

Congré has played on various youth football teams of France. He was a member of the France U-21 team collecting 7 caps and scoring two goals. Due to fracturing his foot, he missed the

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was w ...

. He has yet to be capped by the senior national side. Of

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

an descent, he was named to the national team's preliminary squad to participate in the

2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the tenth edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the twentieth soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was played from July 3 to 26, 2009 in the United States ...

, but did not make the final squad. His call-up and participation would have not hindered future selections from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for Congré, as Guadeloupe (a French overseas department) is not a member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

References

External links

Toulouse FC Profile

LFP Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Congre, Daniel Living people 1985 births Footballers from Toulouse French people of Martiniquais descent Men's association football defenders French men's footballers France men's under-21 international footballers Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Toulouse FC players Montpellier HSC players Dijon FCO players