Mickaël Zidro Tavares (born 25 October 1982) is a Senegalese

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

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for French lower-league side Sénart-Moissy. He has 25 caps for the Senegalese national team.

Career

Club career

Born in

Villeneuve-Saint-Georges Villeneuve-Saint-Georges () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. People from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges are called ''Villeneuvois'' in French. History Prehistory and Antiquity Vill ...

, France, Tavares began his career at

US Créteil The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and moved in 2000 to Portuguese club

FC Alverca Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese football club based in Alverca do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division. History F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many decades in the lower ...

. After two years, he returned to France and signed a contract with

SC Abbeville Sporting Club Abbeville Foot Côte Picarde is a French football club based in Abbeville, Picardie. It was founded in 1901. The club currently plays in the Régionale 2, Hauts-de-France, the seventh tier of the French football league system. Honou ...

, for whom he scored 9 goals in 26 games in the 2002–03 season, following which he moved to

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

, where he played in the reserve team. In 2005, he joined

FC Tours Tours Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tours (), is a Football in France, French association football club based in Tours, the capital city of the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department. The club was formed in 1919 and cu ...

, who were promoted a year later to the

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 ...

. In July 2007, he was on trial at

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in th ...

, and signed a contract with the club after one week in the Czech Republic. He signed a two-year contract in Prague with the option of one more, before moving to

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

on 30 January 2009. He made his debut on 22 February 2009 against

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

. On 24 January 2010, Tavares was loaned to

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

until the end of the season. In August 2010, Tavares was assigned to train with Hamburg's second team and told he has no future in the first team. On 27 August 2010, Tavares joined

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

club

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on loan until July 2011. However, despite playing under Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray did not appear to rate Tavares. This limited him to just 13 appearances, his last coming in the 90th minute against Sheffield United, 4 months after his penultimate appearance. In September 2012 he was close to sign with Bulgarian side

Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas ( bg, ПСФК Черноморец Бургас) or simply Chernomorets ( bg, Черноморец) was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achie ...

On 5 October 2012, Tavares signed on a free transfer for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. He was given the number 25 shirt, previously worn by

Bobby Zamora Robert Lester Zamora (born 16 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. Zamora began his career at Football League club Bristol Rovers, but was soon signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, where he found first ...

. On 4 January 2013,

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps wit ...

confirmed that Tavares was not offered a new contract and had left the club. He made no appearances for Fulham. On 25 August 2013, it was announced that Tavares would sign an amateur contract with Dutch side

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

. After releasing for free from Waalvijk he signed a new deal with Czech first league club

FK Mladá Boleslav FK Mladá Boleslav is a Czech football club based in the city of Mladá Boleslav . The club currently plays in the Czech First League. Mladá Boleslav were runners up in the 2005–06 Czech First League and went on to play in the 2006–07 UEFA ...

. In January 2015 he left Mladá Boleslav and signed with Australian club

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

. On 18 April 2016, Tavares was released by Sydney FC and shortly after signed with the

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

, where he would reunite with cousin

Jacques Faty Jacques Faty (born 25 February 1984) is a former professional footballer who played as a central defender. Born in France, he represented Senegal at international level. Club career Rennes Born in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Val-de-Marne, Faty w ...

for the 2016–17 A-League season.

International career

He received a call-up from

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

in May 2008 against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

in preparation for the

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (O ...

, but Tavares did not play in the match. He now plays for Senegal National Team, receiving his first cap in 2009.

Personal life

Tavares is the son of Tony Tavares nicknamed ''Zagallo'', a Senegalese international from

ASC Diaraf Association Sportive et Culturelle Jaraaf is a Senegalese football club based in Dakar. They play in the top division in Senegalese football. Their home stadium is Stade de Diaraf. The club name is sometimes spelt ASC Jaraaf. The word ''Diaraf'' ...

and ASF Police, and also the cousin of

and

Ricardo Faty Ricardo William Faty (born 4 August 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Born in France, he represents the Senegal national team. Career Faty was born in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France. His football career began wit ...

. Tavares has a wife and a three-year-old daughter, Ciara. Tavares can speak

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, having picked up the language during his time playing in Portugal with

F.C. Alverca Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Alverca do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division. History F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

*
Gambrinus Liga statistics
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Mickael 1982 births Living people Sportspeople from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Senegalese people of French descent Senegalese people of Cape Verdean descent Senegalese footballers Association football midfielders French footballers Senegal international footballers Senegalese expatriate footballers Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Czech First League players Bundesliga players English Football League players Ligue 2 players Eredivisie players A-League Men players US Créteil-Lusitanos players F.C. Alverca players SC Abbeville players FC Nantes players Tours FC players SK Slavia Prague players Hamburger SV players 1. FC Nürnberg players Middlesbrough F.C. players Fulham F.C. players RKC Waalwijk players FK Mladá Boleslav players Sydney FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players US Sénart-Moissy players Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate footballers in the Czech Republic Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in England Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers from Val-de-Marne French people of Cape Verdean descent