Carl Medjani

Carl Medjani (Arabic كارل مجاني, DMG Karil Maǧānī; born 15 May 1985 in Lyon, France) is a French- Algerian football player. The defender is currently in the French first division club AS Monaco under contract and playing on loan at FC Valenciennes.

Medjani has long been considered one of the greatest defensive talent in France, but did not make the final breakthrough so far. From 2000 to 2006 he ran a total of 54 times for a variety of French youth national teams. In 2010 he joined the association and plays since then for Algeria.

Club career

Born in Lyon Medjani began his career in the Academy of the French traditional club AS Saint- Étienne, where he matured into one of the greatest talents of his year. In the season 2002/ 03 he came at the age of 17 years to a total of four games in the B- team of the club, but without being used for the Professional Division. As a result, he turned down a professional contract, which was offered to him by Saint- Étienne, from, which he mutated into one of the most sought-after transfer shares of the summer transfer period.

In addition to the FC Bayern Munich, Juventus and Arsenal expressed mainly Manchester United and Liverpool FC keen interest in signing the player. At Manchester United, Alex Ferguson tried personally to the transfer and invited him in February 2003 on the club grounds, in order to introduce him to the training complex of the association. A contract offer from Manchester United followed, but Medjani decided to compatriot Gérard Houllier, then manager of Liverpool FC, who offered him a better perspective.

In Liverpool, it should be carefully introduced to the first team and increased the time being the reserve team, which he could already lead to the second round as a captain on the field. For the following season, everything pointed to his admission into the professional team of the Reds before Houllier was replaced by Rafael Benítez. Benítez built the team in a row according to his ideas and committed to a total of four new defender. Medjani then had to play no future in the Premier League Team of the Reds and was loaned to Ligue 2 to FC Lorient.

In the spiked with Karim Ziani or as André- Pierre Gignac talents team up Medjani could establish immediately and formed together with Richard Martini 's central defense, the Bretons. The season was disappointing for the club. Started as an ambitious ascent candidate, it was mainly slumped in the second half and finished the season on table space 10 In consequence, the well-known as a talent promoter Lorient coach Christian Gourcuff struggled for an extension of the loan contract of Medjani that rejected Liverpool.

Especially Benítez had his veto for a further loan of the player installed because he einplante him about his strong performances for Lorient as an alternative for the first team of the Reds. As a result, he completed the entire pre-season of the club and sat in qualifying for the Champions League home game against FBK Kaunas for the first time in a competition game on the bench of professionals. Once for Medjani turned out in a row that it is scheduled by Benítez as a supplement for the first team and would again come mostly in reserve for use, he asked for another lending to gain match practice in a professional league. Then he was loaned for one year in the Ligue 1 to FC Metz.

In Metz, he started alongside Jamal Alioui as a regular central defender in the season, the beginning of the season, however, he lost to poor performance soon. This was followed by 23 games, all almost exclusively through the full 90 minutes in which he had to adapt almost any game to another defensive partner. The team presented itself throughout the season as not erstligatauglich, whereby especially on the defensive revealed major weaknesses. Medjani, the reputation of one of the greatest defensive talent in the country to be held at that time suffered, apparently under the resulting high expectations. Although he delivered consistent performances from without, however, to shine, for which he was often criticized in the media. Metz rose at end of season as a Table with the worst defensive from, Medjani went back to Liverpool.

Back at the Reds told him with Benítez, an over-supply would consist of defenders by the interim obligations by Antonio Barragan on Jan Kromkamp and Daniel Agger and he would play no role in the future planning for the professional team.

As a result primarily of FC Lorient struggled with coach Gourcuff to the player who had provided strong support to the club in the season 2004 /05. In July 2006, he then moved back free transfer to Lorient.

Back in Lorient, he was summoned in the second and third round in stem formation, before an injury turned out until November 2006. After that, he was a regular until the winter transfer period, but played mainly weak, so he lost his place to Sylvain Marchal in the second half. In the second half of the club started a run of success and the -budgetary central defense Marchal / Guillaume Moullec shined with strong performances. Medjani thereby became the big loser and completed to the end of the season no further play for Lorient. As a result, the association decided to give the stagnant in its development players in the Ligue 2 for Corsica to the AC Ajaccio.

In League 2, he then offered back strong performances and became the defender of the " Ajaccian " who pledged him in order for an undisclosed fee fixed by Lorient. To date (June 2010) Medjani failed with the ambitious Corsican three times significantly on promotion back to Ligue 1, but is considered one of the strongest defensive player in the league. In January 2013 Medjani moved to AS Monaco. A few months later, in the summer of 2013, he was loaned to the Greek giants Olympiakos Piraeus. Medjani could the Greek club not prevail and brought it in the first round in four league bets. In the winter of 2013 he returned to AS Monaco in order to once again join on loan, FC Valenciennes.

National

At the age of 14 years Medjani debuted in 2000 in the French U -15 international level for his country. In consequence he was in the U-15/U-16/U-17/U-18 and the U -21 team captain and came to 2006 in a total of 54 youth internationals for France to use. He celebrated his biggest success with the U-17 national team, with which he penetrated at the European Championships in Denmark in 2002 to the final, where they defeated 4-2 against Switzerland on penalties.

Having been denied due to the expected breakthrough in the professional business to him, he was never drafted into the French national football team.

In early 2010 he was subsequently contacted by the Algerian federation in relation to a change of Nations. In March 2010, the son of an Algerian received the citizenship and underlined its readiness at international level for Algeria aground.

On 1 June 2010 he was to have graduated from national coach Rabah Saadane, without any International Match, nominated in the final squad of Algeria for the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa. After he had no use at this World Cup, he made his debut on 11 August 2010 in a friendly against Gabon.

Achievements