Marc Pfertzel (born 21 May 1981) 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 right winger or right wing-back, and manager of French club FU Narbonne.

Playing career

France

Born in

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

, Pfertzel started his career in the youth team of his local club

FC Mulhouse Football Club de Mulhouse (; commonly referred to as FCM or simply Mulhouse) is a Football in France, French association football club based in Mulhouse. The club was founded in 1893 and currently play in the Championnat National 3, the fifth le ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

. In 2001–02, Pfertzel moved to

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 ...

club

Troyes Troyes () is a Communes of France, commune and the capital of the Departments of France, department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within ...

, but played only for the reserve team. So he decided to leave the club after only one season and moved

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 ...

club FC Sète 34. In the 2002–03 season, he played 36 matches for the club from Southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Livorno

Again he stayed only for one season at a club. In July 2003, Pfertzel moved to Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

. The club was promoted in his first season into the

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 ...

and Pfertzel played 84 matches in that league. The highlight of his Livorno period was the qualification to 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 ...

in the 2006–07 season. Since

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 ...

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

and

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 ...

were punished because of the

2006 Serie A scandal ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A, and to a lesser extent, Serie B. The scandal centered on the manipulation of referee appointments to favor certain clubs during the 2004- ...

, Livorno climbed from the ninth to the sixth spot and was allowed to play in the

2006–07 UEFA Cup The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club association football, football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla FC, Sevilla won their second consecu ...

. Livorno did quite well and was eliminated in the round of the last 32 by later finalist Espanyol.

VfL Bochum

In the summer of 2007, Pfertzel moved to German Bundesliga club

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

. He signed a four-year contract which was valid in the first and second Bundesliga. To make this transfer happening, Pfertzel even accepted a lower salary so that this money could be invested in the transfer fee.

Union Berlin

On 25 May 2011, it was announced that Pfertzel had secured a free transfer to German 2. Bundesliga side Union Berlin on a two-year deal.

SV Sandhausen

In July 2014, Pfertzel left Union Berlin and joined fellow 2. Bundesliga club

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a Football in Germany, German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is Ger ...

. However, he only earned caps in the first leg of the campaign, being told to be redundant by head coach Alois Schwartz in the winter break. At the end of the 2014–15 season, Pfertzel retired from professional football.

Coaching career

After retiring at the end of the 2017–18 season, Pfertzel became the manager of the reserve of his former club FC Sète 34.Marc Pfertzel : « Je tiens à être très clair, c’est mon choix de partir »
footballclub34.fr, 7 June 2019

Personal life

Upon his retirement from professional football in 2015, he moved back to his native France, settling in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. There he works for an insurance company, specializing in serving athletes.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfertzel, Marc 1981 births Living people French men's footballers Footballers from Mulhouse Men's association football wingers Men's association football defenders Championnat National players Serie A players Serie B players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Super League Greece players FC Mulhouse players ES Troyes AC players FC Sète 34 players US Livorno 1915 players VfL Bochum players VfL Bochum II players Kavala F.C. players 1. FC Union Berlin players SV Sandhausen players French football managers French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece 21st-century French sportsmen