Christophe MESLIN

Christophe Meslin was a gamble made by Stade Rennais FC in the summer of 1998, signed from Pacy-sur-Eure. This striker from Normandy, for whom the first name was still undecided between Daniel and Christophe, was obsessed with goalscoring, and joined the First Team squad under Le Guen. But after several weeks of training, he suffered ruptured cruciate knee ligaments. As a result, he spent the vast majority of his first season on the treatment table, and only played for the Reserve side when he returned from injury in the Spring. In the 1999/2000 season, he spent half of it playing for the Reserves, and then in January finally managed an appearance as substitute for the First Team, coming on against Châteauroux in the French Cup (2-0). His path to a First Team place was blocked by the likes of Bardon, Nonda, Diouf and Yapi. He ended up making this more cameo appearances, totalling just 31 minutes of game-time. After three successive loan spells at Ajaccio and at finally at Nice (twice), he made his move to the Cote d’Azur permanent in 2003.