Olivier Monterrubio (born August 8, 1976 in Gaillac) is a French football player, who currently plays for FC Lorient in the Ligue 1.

[edit] Club career

[edit] 1996-2001: FC Nantes

Monterrubio started his professional career at Nantes in 1996. Product of the famed Centre of Formation of Nantes, he was in the same crop of players such as Mickaël Landreau, now of Paris Saint-Germain. He was an essentian part of the squad in the 1998-99 season, and his winning penalty handed Nantes the Coupe de France title in 1999. In the next season, Monterrubio became a Ligue 1 winner with Les Canaries.

[edit] 2001-2007: Stade Rennais

In the summer of 2001, Monterrubio signed for fierce rivals Stade Rennais. Despite having a quiet start to his spell at the club, he became one of their key players, establishing a deadly partnership with Swiss striker Alexander Frei, now of Borussia Dortmund. In the 2004-2005 season, he led Ligue 1 in assists while Frei was the top scorer. Such was his influence, that he has inherited the captain's armband from Cyril Jeunechamp.

[edit] 2007-2008: RC Lens

In the last few hours of the January 2008 transfer window, Monterrubio signed for RC Lens as a replacement for Olivier Thomert, who moved in the opposite direction. On February 3, 2007 he played his first Ligue 1 match for Lens against Valenciennes.^[1] During this period, he had to fight for his first team place with the Ivorian midfielder Kanga Akalé. He struck up a strong partnership with Nadir Belhadj upon the Algerian left-back's arrival at the club in January 2008, but the team were relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the season despite Monterrubio's fine form.^[2]

[edit] 2008-2009: FC Sion

Monterrubio signed a two-year contract with Swiss side FC Sion during the summer of 2008.^[3]

[edit] 2009-present: FC Lorient

On 28 June 2009 he signed an contract between 30 June 2011 with FC Lorient and left after just one year FC Sion^[4].

[edit] Attributes

He is an accomplished left winger, but he has also been featured as a striker and attacking midfielder in the past. He specializes in set-pieces, especially at penalty-taking.

[edit] International career

[edit] France

In his prime, Monterrubio was among the finest players of his unique kind. However, he has not won a single cap for his nation as of yet. He has, though, received three call-ups to train for the national team.

[edit] External links

• Olivier Monterrubio's profile, stats & pics
• Olivier Monterrubio French league stats at lfp.fr (French)

[edit] References