Florent CHAIGNEAU

Florent Chaigneau’s career got off an ideal start. World U17 Champion with Jacques Faty in 2001, and then winner of the Gambardella Cup (French FA Youth Cup) two years later. The goalkeeper from Vendée was proclaimed the future number one at Stade Rennais, and the club showed their confidence in him by making him Petr Cech’s understudy, when he was 19 years of age. He took advantage of an injury to the Czech goalkeeper to make a substitute’s appearance at Lens, albeit he was unable to prevent the Northern club from scoring the winning goal. He went on to start the next six matches, and demonstrated that the step up to play at that level was maybe a bridge too far. In the end, he conceded 17 goals in 7 matchs between the posts, including a huge clanger at Nice. The following season, Bölöni preferred Pouplin as the understudy to Isaksson. He thus looked for a new club, but his experiences at Brighton, and then at Toulon, were also unhappy ones. Finally, he dropped down to play in amateur football in his native Vendée region in 2009.