Pascal Cygan

Pascal Cygan Personal information Full name Pascal Cygan Date of birth April 29, 1974(1974-04-29) (age 34) Place of birth Lens, FranceHeight 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Playing position DefenderClub information Current club Villarreal CFNumber 12 Youth clubs 1994–1995 ES WasquehalSenior clubs1 Years Club App (Gls)* 1995–2002
2002–2006
2006– Lille OSC
Arsenal
Villarreal CF111 (9)
063 (3)
022 (1)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 2006-07-12.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of n/a.
* Appearances (Goals)

Pascal Cygan (born April 29, 1974 in Lens) is a French football player, currently playing for Villarreal CF. His favoured position is central defender although he has previously played at left-back with some success.

1 Biography
2 Honours
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Lille

Cygan played for ES Wasquehal as a youth player but made his French League debut for Lille OSC in 1995. With Lille he spent two seasons in Ligue 1 before relegation (1997), and three seasons in Ligue 2 before promotion (2000). Lille qualified for the UEFA Champions League by finishing third in 2000–01 and were fifth in 2002. In this time, Cygan was promoted to Lille captaincy, as he was seen as an influential member of the squad and could help the younger players around him. He was also winner of the 2001-02 Etoile d'Or in his last season in France.

Arsenal

He joined Arsenal F.C. in the summer of 2002 for €3m (at the time worth £2.1m). Cygan made his debut in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea as a substitute for Nwankwo Kanu on September 1, 2002. While Cygan featured notably in some of Arsenal's more important fixtures, he was not usually a first choice player. He did however pick up a Premier League winners' medal in 2003–04.

Cygan scored three goals for Arsenal in Premiership action, including an unlikely brace in his first match of the 2005–06 campaign against Fulham. Until that match, he had only scored one previous goal for the team, against Everton in March 2003.

In the 2005–06 season, following injuries to both Ashley Cole and Gaël Clichy, Cygan was drafted in as an emergency left back, and was even named in the Opta team of the week on January 9, 2006.[1] Overall, Arsenal won 11 of the 20 matches Cygan played in and kept 12 clean sheets in the process.[citation needed]He suffered a hamstring injury in January and was unable to play again that season. By the end of the season he was Arsenal's fourth choice central defender behind Sol Campbell, Kolo Touré and Philippe Senderos, with the young Johan Djourou also competing for a place. In total, Cygan played 98 games for Arsenal (including 20 Champions League appearances), scoring three goals.

Villarreal

During the summer of 2006, Cygan was linked with moves to various other clubs in England and Europe. On August 31, 2006, it was announced that the Frenchman had completed a transfer to Villarreal for a £2m transfer fee.[2] He linked up with his former Arsenal team-mate Robert Pirès, who also moved between the two clubs in the summer, but has now been told he has no future at the club.

On June 6, 2008, he signed a new one-year deal with Villareal