Xavier Garbajosa (born 5 December 1976) is a retired French rugby player who is the manager of

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

side

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. Garbajosa was born on 5 December 1976 in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

. He plays in the back-line as a winger, center or full-back. He spent most of his career playing for the

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () ( oc, Estadi Tolosenc), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Toulous ...

and moved to the

Aviron Bayonnais Aviron Bayonnais ( eu, Baionako Arrauna), commonly called Bayonne, is a French rugby union club from Bayonne (''Baiona'', in Basque) in Pyrénées-Atlantiques which, for the 2016-17 season, competed in the top tier of the French league system, ...

in the French

club competition in 2007. With Toulouse, he won the French championship in 1999 and 2001, as well as the European Cup in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

. Between 2001 and 2003, he was the top-scorer in the French

for 3 consecutive years. He was a member of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

's squad at the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's profess ...

(in which France were the runners-up), and notably participated in the semi-final against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. He was selected in the French squad for the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

but had to leave the team before the beginning of the competition due to an injury. He was considered one of the most talented French players of his generation (he was part of the team which won the junior world championship in 1995) but his career was disturbed by recurring knee injuries. He played for the French national team 32 times, making his debut in 1998 in a Test against Ireland, and scored 7 tries (35 points). With the French national team, he won two Grand Slams in 1998 and 2002.

References

External links

ERC rugby bio
* 1976 births Living people Rugby union players from Toulouse French rugby union players French people of Spanish descent Rugby union wings Stade Toulousain players France international rugby union players Aviron Bayonnais players {{France-rugbyunion-bio-stub