Jérôme Rothen

Jérôme Rothen

Personal information
Full name	Jérôme Rothen
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Left Winger
Team information
Current team	Paris Saint-Germain
Number	25
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 13:39, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Jérôme Rothen (born March 31, 1978 in Châtenay-Malabry) is a French footballer, who plays as a left winger for Paris St-Germain. Rothen has won 13 caps for the French national team and he competed at the Euro 2004 tournament.

Biography

He started his career with SM Caen and Troyes AC, before he was brought to AS Monaco in 2001. Rothen was one of the stars of the Monaco side that reached the 2004 final of the Champions League, in May 2004. Along with Monaco teammate Ludovic Giuly, he was touted as the new face of France's forward attack. At his peak, he was called the left-sided David Beckham.

He was a member of the French national squad at Euro 2004, where he made a brief substitute appearance in their defeat by Greece in the quarter-finals. A native of Paris, he fulfilled a childhood dream when he signed for the capital side Paris St-Germain later that summer. Rothen's loss of form since moving from Monaco to PSG meant he was not considered for a place in France's 2006 FIFA World Cup squad. He was recalled to the squad for Euro 2008 qualifying and, on October 10 2007, marked his comeback with a superbly taken free-kick against the Faroe Islands. It was his first goal for France.

«You're Not Going To Believe Me»

On October 8, 2008, Jérôme Rothen published his autobiography «You're Not Going To Believe Me». The book has generated significant attention in the media, notably for its description of an incident concerning Zinédine Zidane, his former teammate in the France national team.

According to Rothen, the incident occurred during the second leg of Monaco's 2004 Champions League quarter-final win over Real Madrid. Monaco had overturned a 4-2 first leg deficit, and were 3-1 up with seconds left to play when Zidane tackled Rothen from behind. "It was a foul and I went down, admittedly I made a bit more of it, but anyone would have done the same, as we were trying to buy some seconds," Rothen wrote. "Zidane leant over me and said: 'Get up, you son of a bitch.'"

The expression Rothen claims Zidane used, 'fils de pute', is a variation on what Marco Materazzi is alleged to have said to Zidane before the head-butt that proved the iconic moment of the 2006 World Cup final. "I was surprised but put it down to his frustration, and I expected him to apologise at the end of the game, but he said nothing," Rothen continued. "I thought the next time we saw each other with the France team he would say sorry, and then it would be forgotten, but he didn't and that disappointed me."

In a subsequent interview with the French newspaper L'Equipe, Rothen stated he did not intend to smear Zidane's image by publicizing the incident. He also denies having received pressure from the latter's camp to remove the offending passage, as had been reported in the press.

Achievements

• 2003, 08 Coupe de la Ligue (with AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain)
• 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup (with France)
• 2006 French Cup (with Paris Saint-Germain)

External links

• Template:Fr icon FFF profile
• Template:Fr icon PSG profile
• Template:En icon 2006-07 appearances on SoccerFactsUK