Valérien Ismaël

Infobox Football biography
playername = Valérien Ismaël


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1975|9|28
cityofbirth = Strasbourg
countryofbirth = France
height = height|m=1.91
currentclub = Hannover 96
clubnumber = 25
position = Central Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1993–1998 1998 1998–2002 2001 2002–2004 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005–2007 2008–
clubs = Strasbourg Crystal Palace Lens → Strasbourg (loan) Strasbourg → Werder Bremen (loan) Werder Bremen Bayern Munich Hannover 96
caps(goals) = 087 0(1) 013 0(0) 088 0(5) 009 0(0) 026 0(2) 032 0(4) 032 0(4) 031 0(0) 011 0(0)
pcupdate = May 3, 2008

Valérien Ismaël (born September 28, 1975 in Strasbourg, France) is a French footballer who currently plays as a defender for Bundesliga side Hannover 96.

Personal life

Valérien Ismaël is married to Karolina. They have a son, Alexis. His hobbies are golf, tennis and watching movies.

Playing career

At 1.91 m tall, Valérien Ismaël is a strong tackler as well as in the air. He has yet to make his senior international debut.

trasbourg

*Crystal PalaceIsmaël became - and remains - the most expensive player Crystal Palace have ever brought when he signed for £2,750,000, from Strasbourg in January 1998. Despite this he only played 13 games for the London club and was only there for 10 months (January-October 1998), before moving back to his native France to Lens.

Lens

Werder Bremen

Valérien Ismaël was loaned to Werder Bremen in 2003. He was sold to Werder prior to the following season. Bremen went on to win the German double in his first season at the club.

Bayern Munich

Ismaël arrived at FC Bayern Munich in July 2005. He received a red card on his debut for the club, but finished the season winning the German league and cup double for the second time in his career. However, he did not feature in the 2006/07 campaign for the club due to his long term injury and was eventually released to join Hannover 96 in January 2008. [ [http://www.fcbayern.t-com.de/en/news/news/2007/14376.php "Valerien Ismael set for Hannover switch"] , fcbayern.t-com.de, accessed December 5, 2007.]

Hannover 96

Ismaël was brought to the club in order to strengthen the struggling defence and to provide leadership for his new team-mates [ [http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/167668 Auf Ismael ruht die Hoffnung - Fußball - Bundesliga - kicker online ] ] . His first game for Hannover was against his last club, Bayern. Ismaël played well for 45 minutes and helped his team maintain a 0:0; after he was substituted with a minor injury, Hannover conceded three goals in the second half [ [http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/vereine/spielpaarungsbericht/object/807733/saison/2007-08/naviindex/1 Bundesliga - Vereine - kicker online ] ] . After overcoming the injury, he became a key player for the team.

International career

After falling short of playing for "Les Bleus", he claimed that he wanted to be capped for the German national football team while playing in the Fußball-Bundesliga.

The Togo national team also wanted to call up Ismaël to their squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, given his wife is Togolese, but FIFA rejected this.

Honours

*French League Cup: 1997, 1999
*French Cup: 2001
*German Championship: 2004, 2006
*DFB Cup: 2004, 2005, 2006
*German League Cup: 2007

References

External links

*lfpfr|10096
* http://www.fussballdaten.de/spieler/ismaelvalerien/