Damien LE TALLEC

The Le Tallecs are very similar. Elder brother Anthony was U17 World Champion in 2001 and then made some bad career decisions. Christophe was French Reserve team champion in 2007 with Rennes, then was unable to continue his career as there were no opportunities for him. Damien didn’t break with tradition. Centre-forward and a key player in all age groups of the youth team setup, the youngest brother also became the youngest professional at Stade Rennais aged just 17 years and 4 months. Having won the Gambardella Cup (French FA Youth Cup) in 2008, and scored the third goal of the match, Damien Le Tallec had the world at his feet. But he produced some off-key performances in CFA (French 4th Division) and started to get itchy feet with Yann M’Vila and Yacine Brahimi persevering where he had failed. He left the club to join Borussia Dortmund in 2009. Just as his big brother had joined Liverpool too early in his career, Damien didn’t do any better, and spent all his time by the Ruhr playing for the Reserves there. After a brief spell at Nantes, he had a long experience of playing in Eastern Europe, where he blossomed as a defender, and returned to France in 2018 to join Montpellier.