Didier Knayer (born 26 November 1957) 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

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 ...

. In his career, he played for

INF Vichy The Institut National du Football de Vichy, more commonly known as INF Vichy, was a Youth system, football academy based in Vichy, France. Founded in 1972 by the French Football Federation, it was dissolved in 1990. The academy had a team that c ...

Bastia Bastia ( , , , ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest popu ...

Béziers Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Martigues Martigues ( in classical norm, ''Lou Martegue'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte. A ...

Club career

After starting his career at

, Knayer joined

following a recommendation by Pierre Pibarot. Knayer participated in Bastia's run in the

1977–78 UEFA Cup The 1977–78 UEFA Cup was the seventh season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at the Stade Armand-Cesari, Furiani, France, and at the Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, t ...

; he played during the club's 3–1 victory over

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

in the second round. He made eight

Division 1 Division 1 or Division One may refer to: Association football * Azadegan League, the second-tier professional football league in Iran * Brisbane Premier League Division 1, the second-tier professional football league in Brisbane, Queensland, Austr ...

appearances during his stay at the Corsican club. In 1979, Knoyer joined Béziers. Ahead of the 1983–84 season, he was recruited by

. He ended his professional career three years later in 1989.

International career

Knayer was a France youth international.

Personal life

Didier's father was also a footballer. After his football career, Knayer became a real estate developer in

Santa-Maria-di-Lota Santa-Maria-di-Lota is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. Demographics Population Religion The principal religion practiced is Catholicism. History Santa-Maria-di-Lota was once called Santa Maria ...

Honours

Bastia *

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 ...

runner-up: 1977–78

Notes

References

1957 births Living people Footballers from Toulouse French men's footballers Men's association football central defenders INF Vichy players SC Bastia players AS Béziers Hérault (football) players US Orléans players FC Martigues players French Division 3 (1971–1993) players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players 20th-century French sportsmen {{France-footy-defender-1950s-stub