Pascal Cygan (born April 29, 1974 in Lens, Pas-de-Calais) is a French footballer who currently plays for FC Cartagena, in the Spanish second division.

His favoured position is central defender, but he can also play at left back.

[edit] Career

[edit] Lille

Cygan started in the ES Wasquehal youth academy, before moving to Lille OSC in 1995, making his first division debuts that year. He would go on to spend three seasons in the second level: in 1999-2000, he was an instrumental defensive element for the champions and, in the subsequent topflight campaign, helped it overachieve for a final third-place, with UEFA Champions League qualification.

In this time, Cygan was also promoted to captaincy, seen as a role model to help develop the younger players. He was also winner of the Etoile d'Or, in his last season in France.

[edit] Arsenal

Cygan joined Arsenal in the summer of 2002 for £2 million,^[1][2] making his debut in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea as a substitute for Nwankwo Kanu on September 1, 2002. While he featured notably in some of Arsenal's more important fixtures, he was mostly considered only a fringe player, but did, however, pick up a Premier League winners' medal in 2003–04, with 18 appearances.

Cygan scored three goals for Arsenal in league action, including an unlikely brace in his first match of the 2005–06 campaign against Fulham.^[3] Until then, he had only scored one goal, against Everton, in March 2003.^[4] In 2005–06, 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.^[5]Overall, Arsenal won 12 of the 20 matches Cygan played in and kept 11 clean sheets in the process.^[6]He suffered a hamstring injury in January and was unable to play again that season, as he was then fourth-choice, 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).

[edit] Spain

During the summer of 2006, Cygan was linked with moves to various other clubs in England and Europe. In August 2006, the Frenchman completed a transfer to Villarreal CF for a £2 million transfer fee, joining former Arsenal teammate Robert Pirès at the club.^[7][8] On June 6, 2008, after having been fairly used in his first two years, mainly due to consecutive serious injuries to Gonzalo Rodríguez, Cygan signed a new one-year deal.^[9] Following a lack of first team opportunities in the 2008–09 season, and with Villarreal unwilling to extend his contract for a further season, Cygan left the club in July 2009.^[10][11]

Cygan joined FC Cartagena in August 2009, on a one-year contract. The Murcia club had been freshly promoted to the second level.^[12]

[edit] Honours

[edit] Team

• French Second Division: 1999–2000
• FA Premier League: 2003–04
• FA Cup: 2002–03, 2004–05
• FA Community Shield: 2002, 2004

[edit] Individual

• Etoile d'Or: 2001–02

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• L'Équipe stats (French)
• Pascal Cygan career stats at Soccerbase
• BDFutbol profile