Nicolas Sébastien Frey (born 6 March 1984) 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 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 ...

Club career

Born in

Thonon-les-Bains Thonon-les-Bains (; ), often simply referred to as Thonon, is a subprefecture of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2018, the commune had a population of 35,241. Thonon-les-Bains is part of a ...

Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie () is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its Prefectures in France, prefecture is Annecy. To the north is Lake Gene ...

, Frey played exclusively at amateur level in his country, joining

AS Cannes Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed in 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 2 ...

' youth system at the age of 10 and spending two seasons with its reserves as a senior. In 2004, aged 20, he moved to Italy with

A.C. Legnano Associazione Calcio Dilettantistica Legnano, commonly referred to as Legnano, is an Italian football club based in Legnano, Lombardy. Founded in 1913, Legnano played three seasons in Serie A and a total of eleven seasons in the top tier of the It ...

, in

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

. After one year, Frey signed for

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

Modena FC Modena Football Club 2018, commonly referred to as Modena, is an Italian football club based in Modena, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1912, and refounded in 2018, having spent the majority of its existence playing in Serie B. They pla ...

, being an important first-team member during his spell and totalling 62 league games in his last two years. In the summer of 2008, he joined

A.C. ChievoVerona Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo (, ), is an Italian football club named after and representing Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto. It is owned since 2024 by the tea ...

in a co-ownership deal along with Angelo Antonazzo, in exchange for Salvatore Bruno and

Michele Troiano Michele Troiano (born 7 January 1985) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Troiano started his career at native club Monza. He then joined Modena F.C. in Serie B. In January 2007, then Serie A team ...

. He made his

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 ...

debut on 5 October 2008 in a 0–2 home loss against

ACF 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 ...

, and finished his debut campaign with 21 league matches as the

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

side retained their division status. On 17 July 2009, Chievo signed Frey on a permanent basis. During his spell with the club, he often shared right-back duties with Gennaro Sardo. Frey returned to the second division on 31 January 2018, with the 33-year-old being loaned to

Venezia FC Venezia Football Club is an Italian professional football club based in Venice, Veneto, that currently plays in . They were relegated to Serie B after a 2-3 loss to Juventus. Originally founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club in 1907, the club have ...

. After initially leaving Chievo at the end of 2018–19, he rejoined the team on a one-year contract on 6 September 2019.

Personal life

Frey's older brother,

Sébastien Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of the Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', mea ...

, was also a footballer. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he too was brought up at Cannes, and also played most of his career in Italy, mainly with

Parma F.C. Parma Calcio 1913 () is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian league system, following promotion from Serie B in the 2023–24 season. ''Parma Football Cl ...

and Fiorentina. His father, Raymond, was a professional goalkeeper, while his

grandfather Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a m ...

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as well in Portugal ...

was a defender who played several years with

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club () is a French professional association football, football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division of Football in France, French football. Toulouse plays it ...

, reaching the France national team as Sébastien.

References

External links

Chievo Verona official profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Nicolas 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Thonon-les-Bains Footballers from Haute-Savoie French men's footballers Men's association football defenders AS Cannes players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players AC Legnano players Modena FC 2018 players AC ChievoVerona players Venezia FC players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century French sportsmen