Stéphane Zeusnagapa Pounewatchy (born 10 February 1968) 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 France, England and Scotland.

Career

Pounewatchy played in his native France for Sedan from 1985 to 1987, suffering

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

from

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 ...

in the 1985–86 season. In 1989, he returned to the second tier with

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 ...

and helped them to the Ligue 2 title and 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 ...

in 1992–93. The club consolidated their top-flight status in 1993–94 and 1994–95, in part due to Didier Tholot's 13 league goals in both seasons. Pounewatchy spent the 1995–96 season with FC Gueugnon, though both Gueugnon and Martigues suffered relegation to Ligue 2. Pounewatchy moved to England for the start of the 1996–97 season, where he was a permanent fixture in the Third Division Carlisle United team in both 1996–97 and 1997–98. The club celebrated promotion to the Second Division in the former season and relegation from it in the latter. He was named as

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

as Carlisle won the 1997 Football League Trophy final at Wembley with a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

victory over Colchester United following a 0–0 draw. Pounewatchy then briefly moved north to Scotland for the 1997–98 season, spending August with

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in the SPL, playing four games before joining Port Vale of the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

First Division on a monthly basis. He was only at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...

for September, playing just two games. On 20 February, he joined Colchester United, signing a

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

to run for the rest of the season. He said: "I am very happy to be in the Second Division because when you are a professional footballer you want to play at the highest level you can." He played 15 games that season and was released on 8 May. On 25 January 2000, he turned out for Scunthorpe United in a 2–1 defeat by Chesterfield at Glanford Park in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

Career statistics

Honours

Martigues *

: 1992–93 Carlisle United *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 Football League, 1920–21 and again from 1958–59 Football League, 1958 until 1991–92 Football League, 1992. When the FA Premier League ...

third-place promotion: 1996–97 *

: 1996–97

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pounewatchy, Stephane Footballers from Paris French men's footballers Men's association football central defenders CS Sedan Ardennes players FC Martigues players FC Gueugnon players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Carlisle United F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Dundee F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Scottish Premier League players English Football League players 1968 births Living people 20th-century French sportsmen