Football Player's Biography 7: Hugo Lloris

Full name	Hugo Lloris
Date of birth	26 December 1986 (1986-12-26) (age 24)
Place of birth	Nice, France
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper

Hugo Lloris (French pronunciation: [yɡo lɔʁis]; born 26 December 1986) is a French football player who currently plays as a goalkeeper for French club Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1. He is also a French international and is currently the first-choice goalkeeper and vice-captain for both club and country.^[1] He is a two-time winner and the reigning Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year.
Lloris began his career with hometown club OGC Nice. He made his debut as a teenager in October 2005 and started in goal during the team's run to the 2006 Coupe de la Ligue Final. After excelling at the club for three seasons, Lloris moved to seven-time Ligue 1 champions Olympique Lyonnais, amid interest from several other clubs, notably Milan. Lloris won several domestic awards in his first season with Lyon and, in his second season, earned award nominations at European level for his performances in the UEFA Champions League, which saw Lyon reach the semi-finals for the first time.
Lloris is a French international. Prior to playing at senior level, he played on the under-19 team that won the 2005 European Under-19 Football Championship. Lloris made his senior international debut in November 2008. Lloris helped France qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and was applauded by the media for his performance over two legs against the Republic of Ireland in the qualifying playoffs. In 2010, he captained the national team for the first time.

Early and personal life

Lloris was born on 26 December 1986 in the Mediterranean city of Nice to an upper class family. His mother was a lawyer and his father is a Monte Carlo-based banker.^[2]^[3] In 2008, while playing for Nice, his mother died. Just two days after her passing, he gained national respect for his refusal of a bereavement leave offer from manager Frédéric Antonetti, instead opting to play in a league match for Nice.^[4] Lloris performed admirably in the match despite the circumstances. As a youth, like his international and club teammate Yoann Gourcuff, Lloris excelled at tennis and played the sport up until the age of 13. He was among the top players in his age group ranking high in the country's national standings before opting to focus on football.^[2]
On 10 August 2010, Lloris was named, alongside international teammate Karim Benzema, to appear on the cover of the French version of FIFA 11.^[5] On 23 September 2010, Lloris announced the birth of his daughter.^[6]

Club career

Early career

Hugo began his football career at age six playing at CEDAC (Centre de Diffusion et d'Action Culturelle), a local cultural center based in the commune of Cimiez located on the outskirts of Nice.^[7]^[8] The center offered a variety of activities, which included football. Lloris played a variety of positions at the center, such as in the attack, before switching to the goalkeeper position after coaches noticed that he possessed impressive goalkeeping qualities, such as ball-handling and catching skills.^[7] Lloris excelled at the position and caught the attention of former OGC Nice goalkeeper and French international Dominique Baratelli who recommended that the player join his former club. At the age of ten, Lloris joined Nice's youth academy.^[7]

Nice

After spending nearly three years in the reserves, he was promoted to the first team squad and assigned the number 1 shirt. He was designated by manager Frédéric Antonetti as the team's starting goalkeeper for the club's Coupe de la Ligue campaign ahead of fan-favorite and Nice-born as well Damien Gregorini, who was relied more upon in league play. Lloris made his professional debut on 25 October 2005, at the age of 18, recording a clean sheet in Nice's 2–0 Coupe de la Ligue win over Châteauroux.^[9] He recorded another clean sheet the following round against Sedan and helped Nice upset favorites Bordeaux and Derby de la Côte d'Azur rivals Monaco in the quarterfinals and semi-finals, respectively, meaning the club had reached its first-ever Coupe de la Ligue final.^[10]^[11]^[12] In the final, Lloris played the entire match in the club's 2–1 defeat against Nancy.^[13]
Lloris made his league debut on 18 March 2006 against Nancy picking up a clean sheet in a 1–0 victory.^[14] He made four more league appearances that season. The following season, Lloris was given the starting job permanently ahead of Gregorini, who subsequently departed the club for Nancy. Lloris appeared in all but one league match recording 13 clean sheets as Nice finished in 16^th place. Despite the disappointing finish, the club was the fifth-best defensive team in the league with Lloris conceding only 36 goals. Only veterans Grégory Coupet, Cédric Carrasso, and Ulrich Ramé conceded fewer. For the early part of the 2007–08 season, Lloris endured a recurring ligament injury in his left knee, which forced him to miss three weeks in September. He returned to the team on 6 October 2007 in a league match against Le Mans, but was substituted out after 71 minutes after the injury relapsed.^[15]^[16] Lloris missed a further six weeks before returning on 24 November in the team's 2–1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain.^[17] He appeared consistently with the team for the rest of the season as Nice finished in 8^th place, the club's best finish in the league since finishing 6^th in the 1988–89 season. Lloris conceded only 24 goals in his 30 appearances recording 13 clean sheets. He contributed to a defense that only conceded 30 overall during the season, tied for the league-best. Lloris' efforts that season led to him being approached by several big European clubs with hopes of signing him for the future.

Lyon

After another solid season with Nice, speculation arose as to where Lloris would play the following season. He was primarily linked to French club Lyon, who wanted him to replace the departing Grégory Coupet, Milan, who wanted him to replace the Brazilian Dida, and Tottenham Hotspur, who wanted Lloris to replace Paul Robinson.^[18]^[19]^[20] After reportedly coming to personal terms with Milan, Lloris snubbed the Italian club for seven-time Ligue 1 champions Lyon. Milan vice president Adriano Galliani later declared that an agreement had been all but reached stating that Lloris was "practically ours", but the deal reached a stumbling block when Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati refused a move to Palermo.^[21]^[22]^[23] Lloris explained his decision citing Lyon's European ambitions, more playing time at Lyon, and in Milan, he was not guaranteed the starting goalkeeper spot.^[24] The transfer fee was initially undisclosed, but was later discovered to be priced at €8.5 million.^[25] He was promptly handed the number 1 jersey and also the starting goalkeeper position.
Lloris made his club debut in the team's opening league match of the 2008–09 season on 10 August 2008 against Toulouse. Lyon won the match 3–0 win giving the goalkeeper his first career clean sheet with the club.^[26] In the following three matches, Lloris earned clean sheets against Lorient and regional rivals Grenoble and Saint-Étienne.^[27]^[28]^[29] Despite Lyon losing out on the title for the first time in seven years, he finished the campaign conceding only 27 goals in the league and recording 16 clean sheets; both of which were second-best to only Cédric Carrasso. Lloris was, subsequently, named the league's top goalkeeper and also named to the Team of the Year.

In the 2009–10 season, Lloris remained the club's first-choice goalkeeper and opened the new campaign by recording four clean sheets in the club's first eight matches. For his performances in the month of September, he was awarded the UNFP Player of the Month becoming the first goalkeeper since Steve Mandanda in August 2008 to receive the award. Lloris earned media praise for his performances against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League. In the first match, played at Anfield, Lloris made four saves holding Liverpool to only one goal. Lyon won the match 2–1. In the second match at the Stade Gerland, he produced stops from shots by Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, and Andriy Voronin in the first half, then displayed reflexes to deny the Brazilian Lucas Leiva midway through the second period. Though Lyon conceded late, the team drew the match 1–1 with a goal from Lisandro López in injury time.^[30]^[31] On 8 November 2009, Lloris, alongside Marseille and France's number two goalkeeper Steve Mandanda each conceded five goals in a thrilling 5–5 draw between Lyon and Marseille, though most of the goals conceded were attributed to "slack defending" displayed by both clubs as described by the media and both managers.^[32]^[33] On 20 December, Lloris finished third behind Nicolas Anelka and Yoann Gourcuff in voting for the France Football 2009 French Player of the Year award.^[34]
Lloris remained consistent during the 2010 portion of the season conceding only two goals in the club's first four matches of the year with Lyon winning all of the them and Lloris picking up two clean sheets. On 16 February, Lloris earned a clean sheet in Lyon's first leg of its UEFA Champions League knockout round match against Real Madrid. Lloris made two saves in the team's 1–0 victory making a finger-tipping save from a deflected Cristiano Ronaldo shot in the 61^st minute and producing a reflex save on a shot from Gonzalo Higuaín three minutes later to keep Lyon ahead on the scoreline.^[35]^[36] Lyon later achieved qualification to the quarterfinals in the competition after drawing 1–1 in Madrid with Lloris conceding the opening goal to Cristiano Ronaldo in the 6^th minute. It was the goalkeeper's first goal conceded in over 620 minutes. On 2 May, Lloris provided the assist on the game-winning goal scored by Michel Bastos in Lyon's 1–0 win over Montpellier.^[37] A week later, he was named, for the second consecutive season, the UNFP Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year.
Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Lloris was nominated for the UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year award at the UEFA Club Football Awards, but lost out on the award to UEFA Champions League-winning keeper Júlio César of Internazionale.^[38]^[39]

International career

Lloris has been active on the international front with France first appearing with the under-18 team making his debut on 11 Match 2004 in a friendly match against Germany.^[40] He later played with the under-19s and was part of the winning team at the 2005 European Under-19 Football Championship. Lloris appeared in all 20 matches the under-19 team contested. He made only five appearances with the under-21 team, primarily because of his commitments to the senior team. On 11 October 2008, with the under-21 squad attempting to qualify for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, coach Erick Mombaerts called up Lloris to the team for their important two-legged playoff against Germany, despite Lloris having been called up to the senior team and the player having last played for the team in August 2007. Lloris honored the call up and started the second leg. With France seconds away from a spot in the tournament, because of the team's 1–1 draw in the first leg, Germany got a late goal from Benedikt Höwedes.^[41] The 1–0 loss eliminated France from the competition and also ended Lloris's under-21 career.
Lloris received his first call-up to the senior national team for France's 6 February 2008 match against Spain. However, he instead played for the B team in their friendly match against the Congo DR, held the day before the Spain friendly. After receiving several more call ups in 2008, he finally earned his first cap on 19 November 2008 in a 0–0 draw with Uruguay. On 9 September 2009, Lloris received his first international red card, against Serbia, following a foul on Nikola Žigić in the penalty box, despite replays showing otherwise.^[42] Lloris returned to the team on 14 October playing the entire 90 minutes in the team's 3–1 win over Austria.

Lloris was applauded by the media and players, alike, for his performance over two legs against the Republic of Ireland that saw France earn a spot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Former national team goalkeeper Grégory Coupet credited his performance as "phenomenal", while the French media branded him "Saint Lloris", which is a play on the nickname of Real Madrid counterpart Iker Casillas, who is considered one of the top goalkeepers in Europe at the moment.^[43]^[44]^[45]
On 11 May 2010, Lloris was named to Domenech's 30-man preliminary squad to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He was later named to the 23-man team and installed as the first-choice goalkeeper to compete in the competition. On 11 June 2010, Lloris made his FIFA World Cup debut in the team's opening group stage match against Uruguay earning a clean sheet in a 0–0 stalemate.^[46] Lloris appeared in both of France's other group stage matches, which were against Mexico and the hosts South Africa. Against South Africa, Lloris committed a goalkeeping error, which resulted in the opening goal for the hosts. However, he redeemed himself later in the match by producing several saves to limit the South Africans chances of progressing to the knockout rounds. France lost the match 2–1, which resulted in the team's elimination from the competition.^[47]
On 17 November 2010, Lloris captained France, for the first time, in the team's 2–1 victory over England at Wembley Stadium.