Jérôme Rothen

Jérôme Rothen (born March 31, 1978 in Châtenay-Malabry) is a France football (soccer), who plays as a left Midfielder Winger for Paris Saint-Germain. Rothen has won 13 caps for the France national football team and he competed at the 2004 European Football Championship tournament. He is a skilful left winger who specialises at free kicks, crossing and passing.

Biography

He started his career with SM Caen and Troyes AC, before he was brought to AS Monaco in 2001. Rothen was one of the stars of the Monaco side that reached the UEFA Champions League 2003-04 Final of the UEFA Champions League, in May 2004. Along with Monaco teammate Ludovic Giuly, he was touted as the new face of France's forward attack. At his peak, he was called the left-sided David Beckham.

He was a member of the French national squad at 2004 European Football Championship, where he made a brief substitute appearance in their defeat by Greece national football team in the quarter-finals. A native of Paris, he fulfilled a childhood dream when he signed for the capital side Paris St-Germain later that summer. Rothen's loss of form since moving from Monaco to PSG meant he was not considered for a place in France's 2006 FIFA World Cup squad. He was recalled to the squad for Euro 2008 qualifying and, on October 10 2007, marked his comeback with a superbly taken free-kick against the Faroe Islands national football team. It was his first goal for France.

«You're Not Going To Believe Me»

Zidane's entourage were reportedly doing all they could to prevent publication of an enlightening passage from Jérôme Rothen's autobiography «You're Not Going To Believe Me».

The offending extract focuses on an incident during the second leg of Monaco's 2004 Champions League quarter-final win over Real Madrid. Monaco had overturned a 4-2 first leg deficit, and were 3-1 up with seconds left to play when Zidane tackled Rothen from behind. "It was a foul and I went down, admittedly I made a bit more of it, but anyone would have done the same, as we were trying to buy some seconds," Rothen wrote. "Zidane leant over me and said: 'Get up, you son of a bitch.'"

The expression Rothen claims Zidane used, 'fils de pute', is a variation on what Marco Materazzi is alleged to have said to Zidane before the head-butt that proved the iconic moment of the 2006 World Cup final. "I was surprised but put it down to his frustration, and I expected him to apologise at the end of the game, but he said nothing," Rothen continued. "I thought the next time we saw each other with the France team he would say sorry, and then it would be forgotten, but he didn't and that disappointed me."

Clubs

- 1997-2000: Caen
- 2000-December 2001: Troyes
- January 2001-2004: AS Monaco
- 2004-present: PSG

Achievements

- 2003, 08 Coupe de la Ligue (with AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain)
- 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup (with France)
- 2006 French Cup (with Paris Saint-Germain)