Fabien Barthez

Where is Fabien Barthez now?

Renowned for his flamboyance between the sticks, French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez retired from playing in 2007 after a short spell playing for French side Nantes in Ligue 1.

Starting his professional career in 1990 with Toulouse, he went onto make 597 first-team appearances over a 17-year period for five teams including Manchester United where he won two Premier League titles, Marseille where he won the UEFA Champions League in 1993 and also AS Monaco where he won two Ligue 1 titles.

On the international stage he was the first-choice goalkeeper for the France national team between 1994 and 2006 making 87 appearances and winning the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 2000 UEFA European Championships and the 2003 Confederations Cup.

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Upon retiring from playing, Barthez had a brief spell playing in the beach soccer circuit before setting out on a new career path in the motor sport world in 2008.

To say that he took the sport by storm is an understatement, and he was crowned France’s FT motor sport champion in 2013 winning the Championship by a clear 21 points ahead of his nearest rivals which included ex Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve.

A year later, Barthez made his Le Mans 24 Hour race debut driving a Ferrari and finishing a respectable ninth place in the GTE class and also participated in the 2016 Le Mans race driving a Ligier finishing in 12th place.

In 2020 he returned to former side Toulouse where he currently works as the club’s goalkeeping coach.

Back to Manchester United



#One2Eleven (4-3-3 Formation)

Fabien Barthez was a guest on Sky Sports programme The Fantasy Football Club in August 2014 where he picked the eleven best players he had ever played with in their #One2Eleven section of the show.

Fabien Barthez One2Eleven

GK – Fabien Barthez – I have chosen a team in which I would have liked to have played in therefore I have picked myself.

CB – Laurent Blanc – the thing that made him stand out was that he could calm his team mates down. He had great anticipation and we understood each other instantly.

CB – Marcel Desaillyhe was less of a leader, more like a warrior. He was a rock at the back but also a fair player.

RB – Lilian Thuram – a very calm and intelligent player. I used to get annoyed by him as I always wanted the ball off him.

LB – Bixente Lizarazu – very organised in a German way A good healthy person with a very positive mind-set.

CM – Paul Scholes – for me you can put him on the same level as the Brazilian Ronaldo. I always knew he was a good player but after I played alongside him, I realised that he was Manchester United’s all time greatest player

CM – Emmanuel Petit – I adore him as a person. A great midfielder who was physically strong and like Scholes could score goals.

CM – Zinedine Zidane – for me the greatest player of the century and a very close friend of mine.

RW – Thierry Henry – enjoyed a laugh before the game but was deadly serious on the pitch. Very pacy player and a great dribbler.

LW – Ryan Giggs – similar to Henry in that he loves life. A very generous guy who would help anyone out. He will become a very good manager because he knows the game so well and has a lot of heart.

ST – Rudi Voller – the ‘fox in the box’, a World Cup winner, he won it all. A real class act who I spent time with at Marseille.


Fabien Barthez: Premier League Statistics

NationalityFrench
PositionGoalkeeper
Appearances92
Clean Sheets34
Yellow Cards3
Red Cards0
Premier League Teams Played forManchester United

Statistics courtesy of www.premierleague.com

Last Updated on 2 November 2022 by Admin