Florian Maurice

Florian Maurice (born 20 January 1974) is a French former professional footballer. He played as a striker, and most notably won the 1998 Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue with French team Paris Saint-Germain. He played six games and scored a single goal for the France national football team, also representing his nation at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Florian Maurice
Personal information
Full name Florian Maurice
Date of birth (1974-01-20) 20 January 1974
Place of birth Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, France
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Lyon
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1997 Lyon 126 (44)
1997–1998 Paris Saint-Germain 29 (7)
1998–2002 Marseille 62 (23)
2001–2002 → Celta Vigo (loan) 11 (2)
2002–2004 Bastia 73 (18)
2004–2005 Istres 14 (0)
2005 Châteauroux 10 (1)
Total 325 (95)
National team
1994–1996 France U21 21 (15)
1996–1999 France 6 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Born in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône, Florian Maurice started playing youth football with local top-flight team Olympique Lyonnais in 1986. A great hope in French football, Maurice was touted as the new Jean-Pierre Papin.[1] He was included in Lyonnais' senior squad for the Ligue 1 championship in the 1991–92 season, but did not make his Ligue 1 debut until August 1992. His national breakthrough came during the 1994–95 season, when he scored 15 league goals. In the 1995–96 season, he scored 18 league goals for Lyonnais and took part in both the 1996 European Under-21 Championship and 1996 Summer Olympics tournaments.[2]

He made his debut for the French national team in August 1996, under national manager Aimé Jacquet. However, Maurice's progress was halted during the 1996–97 season, when he suffered a ruptured achilles tendon and went through several months of recovery. In the summer 1997, he moved from Lyonnais to league rivals Paris Saint-Germain in a transfer deal worth FF 41 million.[1] He was a part of the Paris SG team which won both the 1998 Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue trophies.[3][4] He played a single season at Paris SG, scoring seven league goals, before he moved on to Olympique de Marseille in the summer 1998.

In his first season at Marseille, Maurice recovered his goal scoring ability, and netted 14 league goals. Marseille reached the final of the international 1999 UEFA Cup tournament, but lost 0–3 to Parma AC from Italy. The following two years at Marseille, Maurice suffered several minor injuries, and could not establish himself in the Marseille starting line-up. He played his last match for the French national team in November 1999, scoring his only national team goal in a 3–0 win against Croatia, before being dropped by new national team manager Roger Lemerre.

He moved abroad in the summer 2001, to play for Celta de Vigo in Spain. After a single, unsuccessful year at the club, he returned to France to play for Ligue 1 club SC Bastia. He had moderate success at Bastia, but when his contract expired in the summer 2004, only newly promoted team FC Istres were in need of his services. He failed to score any goals for the relegation battling Istres team, and left the club in January 2005. He moved to Ligue 2 club LB Châteauroux, where he played until he retired in September 2005. He is now recruitment manager for the Olympique Lyonnais.

Honours

Club

Paris Saint-Germain

Individual

References
  1. (in French) Guirec Gombert, Florian Maurice: une reconversion réussie, le Figaro, 30 June 2008.
  2. http://www.leballonrond.fr/player.php?id=3446
  3. "PSG – Bordeaux 2-2 (4-2 tab), 04/04/98, Coupe de la Ligue 97-98". archivesparisfootball.wordpress.com. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  4. "PSG – Lens 2-1, 02/05/98, Coupe de France 97-98". archivesparisfootball.wordpress.com. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
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