Matthieu Delpierre (born 26 April 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

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Delpierre's professional career started with

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of Football in Franc ...

, before a move to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

where he eventually became the club captain. Delpierre spent eight years at Stuttgart before moving on to

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V. (), commonly known as TSG Hoffenheim (), are a German professional association football, football club based in Sinsheim. Originally founded in 1899 as a gymnastics club, Hoffenheim came into bei ...

, then

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

and ended his career in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

with

Melbourne Victory FC Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under North American professional sports leag ...

He represented France at U18, U20 and under-21 level, making appearances during the

2002 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2002 was the 13th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Switzerland between 16 and 28 May 2002. Czech Republic U-21s won the competition for the first time. Qu ...

Club career

Lille

In his first season with Lille, Delpierre made few appearances but helped in the club's promotion 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 ...

. Delpierre played more regularly in his second season, helping Lille finish third and thereby qualify for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. Delpierre continued to perform well for Lille though the club finished at a lower position in the league every season.

VfB Stuttgart

Delpierre was signed by

on a free transfer after Lille refused to grant him a contract extension. Stuttgart struggled during the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons, but Delpierre began to improve under the tutelage of coach Armin Veh. The following season, during which he missed only one game through illness, the French defender formed an almost impenetrable barrier alongside

Fernando Meira Fernando José da Silva Freitas Meira (; born 5 June 1978) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender. In his country, he represented most notably Vitória de Guimarães, also playing one year with ...

at the heart of the Stuttgart defence. Matthieu has also been a vital cog in Stuttgart's success in the

2006–07 DFB-Pokal The 2006–07 DFB-Pokal was the 64th season of the annual German football cup competition. 64 teams competed in the tournament of six rounds, which began on 8 September 2006 and ended on 26 May 2007. In the final, 1. FC Nürnberg defeated VfB Stu ...

, in which the team conceded only three goals before losing the final to

Nürnberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. ...

. On 19 May 2007, Delpierre won the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

with Stuttgart, playing a significant part in their success. Delpierre Victory Training May 2015

His defensive performances attracted the attention of

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

and also French clubs

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 ...

and

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

. However, he remained at Stuttgart, extending his contract until the summer of 2012. On 1 December 2009, Delpierre was appointed the new captain of VfB Stuttgart by

Markus Babbel Markus Babbel (; born 8 September 1972) is a German professional football coach and former player who most recently managed Western Sydney Wanderers FC. He played as a defender for clubs in Germany and England. Babbel won the UEFA Cup twice: in ...

. On 12 January 2012 he asked Bruno Labbadia to appoint another player.

TSG Hoffenheim and FC Utrecht

In April 2012, it was announced that Delpierre would join Hoffenheim on a free transfer at the end of the season, on a two-year contract. He was demoted to the under-23 squad during the 2013–14 season. Delpierre signed for

in January 2014.

Move to Australia

On 7 July 2014,

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

announced the signing of Delpierre on a one-year deal. On 10 October 2014, Delpierre scored the first goal of the

2014–15 A-League The 2014–15 A-League was the 38th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 10th season of the A-League since its establishment in 2004. Brisbane Roar were both the defending A-League Premiers and Champions. The regular season commen ...

season in the Victory's first round match against the

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

, scoring from a

Guilherme Finkler Guilherme Finkler (born September 24, 1985) is a retired Brazilian Association football, footballer who played as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder, commonly known as Guilherme in Brazil and Gui Finkler in Australia and Ne ...

free kick in just the 8th minute of the match. The Victory eventually won the match 4–1. On 1 May 2015, Delpierre extended his contract with Melbourne Victory for one more year. Delpierre made 53 appearances in all competitions for the Victory during his two seasons in the A-League, scoring once. On 26 April 2016, Delpierre announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 35, having completed 17 seasons since his debut with Lille in 1999.

International career

Delpierre was called up to the senior France team in March 2008 but was ultimately never capped at that level.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

;Lille *

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 ...

: 1999–2000 ;Stuttgart *

: 2006–07 ;

* A-League Championship: 2014–15 * A-League Premiership: 2014–15 * FFA Cup: 2015 Individual * PFA Team of the Season: 2014–15, 2015–16 * Victory Medal: 2015–16 * Players' Player of the Year: 2015–16

References

External links

Matthieu Delpierre
at Stuttgart's official website

at Eurosport *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delpierre, Matthieu 1981 births Living people French men's footballers France men's under-21 international footballers France men's youth international footballers FC Nantes players Lille OSC players VfB Stuttgart II players VfB Stuttgart players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players FC Utrecht players Melbourne Victory FC players Men's association football fullbacks Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Eredivisie players A-League Men players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia 21st-century French sportsmen