Alban Lafont

Alban Lafont
Personal information
Full name Alban Lafont
Date of birth (1999-01-23) 23 January 1999
Place of birth Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Toulouse
Number 40
Youth career
2008–2014 AS Lattoise
2014–2015 Toulouse
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015– Toulouse 39 (0)
National team‡
2015 France U16 5 (0)
2015 France U17 2 (0)
2016– France U18 4 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 November 2016.

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 14 November 2016

Alban Lafont (born 23 January 1999) is a French professional footballer who currently plays as goalkeeper for Ligue 1 side Toulouse and the France U18 national football team. He currently holds the record for being the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in Ligue 1.

Club career

Early career

Lafont started his career at amateur side AS Lattoise where he initially began playing as an attacking midfielder, before converting to a goalkeeper.[1] He spent six years with Lattoise before signing with Ligue 1 side Toulouse in 2014.

Toulouse

2015–16 season

Lafont spent little more than a year in the academy at Toulouse before club manager Dominique Arribagé handed him his Ligue 1 debut on 28 November 2015 against OGC Nice.[2] Upon doing so, he became the youngest ever goalkeeper to play in Ligue 1 at the age of 16 years and 310 days, surpassing the record previously held by Mickaël Landreau.[3] Having replaced Ali Ahamada and Mauro Goicoechea as Toulouse's starting goalkeeper, Lafont kept clean sheets in his first two competitive fixtures before finally conceding in a 3-2 loss against Lorient on 5 December 2015. In January 2016, Lafont was named as the 34th best U-20 player in the world star by Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport and featured as one of only two goalkeepers on the list alongside A.C. Milan's Gianluigi Donnarumma.[4] Having been 10 points adrift of safety at the time of Lafont's introduction into the first team, Toulouse managed to avoid relegation on the final day of the season, thanks in part to the eight clean sheets he kept in his 24 appearances for the campaign.[5] He was rewarded for his form on 30 June 2016 when he signed a new contract with Toulouse, extending his stay with the club until 2020.[6]

2016–17 season

Lafont retained the number one spot for Toulouse in the following season and started the campaign by keeping a clean sheet against Marseille on the opening weekend.[7] On 22 October he was named as the man of the match for his performance in Toulouse's 0-0 draw with Angers, with his form in goal earning him his fourth clean sheet in only his tenth league appearance for the campaign.[8] Lafont's previous three clean sheets had come against esteemed opposition in the form of Marseille, Saint-Étienne and defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain.[9] Four days later, Lafont made his Coupe de la Ligue debut and kept another clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Ligue 2 side Auxerre.[10]

Club Statistics

(Correct as of 30 November 2016) [11]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
France League Cup League Cup Europe Other Total
ClubSeasonLeagueAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Toulouse 2015–16 Ligue 1 2400000——240
2016–17 1500010——160
Total 39000100000400

    International career

    French national youth teams

    Lafont made six appearances for the France U16 team and captained the side on three separate occasions.[3] He then made his debut for France U17 on 20 October 2015 against N. Ireland, keeping a clean sheet in the process. Lafont was, however, not seleced for France's 2016 European Under-17 Championship squad after Toulouse lobbied for him to remain with the club for their last two games of the season to aid their relegation battle.[12]

    In September 2016, Lafont was named in the 20-man France U18 squad by manager Bernard Diomede for the 2016 Limoges Tournament.[13] He was an ever-present as France ended the tournament on top of the standings having won 2 out of their 3 matches and drawn the other.[14]

    Honours

    Individual

    Records

    Personal life

    Lafont was born in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso to a French father and Burkinabe mother.[15] His parents separated when he was nine years old with Lafont moving to France to live with his father in Herault while his mother remained in Burkina Faso, where she later became a Minister of Parliament in the Burkina Faso National Assembly.[16] Lafont comes from a sporting family. His maternal grandfather played football for ten years in Burkina Faso while his mother was a member of the national handball team.[16] His father also played tennis.[17] In January 2016, relatives of Lafont were among the 30 people killed in the Ouagadougou attacks when a group of armed gunmen opened fire in a Cappuccino restaurant.[16]

    On 25 September 2016, Lafont became the youngest ever player to be invited as a guest on French football programme, Téléfoot.[18][19]

    References

    1. ↑ Steines, Geoffrey (15 January 2016). "Alban Lafont, ce Gamin qui n'en est pas un". Football365 (in French). Retrieved 26 June 2016.
    2. ↑ "Toulouse vs. Nice - 28 November 2015 - Soccerway". Soccerway. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
    3. 1 2 3 Bayol, Marie-Océane (5 December 2015). "UEFA.com's weekly wonderkid: Alban Lafont". UEFA.com. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
    4. ↑ Flanagan, Aaron (28 January 2016). "Dele Alli ranked No.8 on a list of the world's best under-20 stars - but who ranks above him?". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
    5. ↑ Scott, Andrew (14 May 2016). "Toulouse Pull off Great Escape". Ligue 1. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
    6. ↑ "Alban Lafont et Issa Diop signent pros au TFC". L'Equip (in French). 30 June 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
    7. ↑ "Frustration for Gomis and OM". Ligue 1. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
    8. ↑ "Lafont Keeps Angers at Bay". Ligue 1. 22 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
    9. ↑ Bajaj, Abhisek (13 October 2016). "Transfer Rumour: Arsenal FC to Rival Juventus and Porto for 17-year old French Goalkeeping Prodigy Alban LAfont". The Hard Tackle. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
    10. ↑ Crossan, D (28 October 2016). "Testing Toulouse Trip for Troubled OL". Ligue 1. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
    11. ↑ "Alban Lafont Socceway Profile". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
    12. ↑ Stival, Nicolas (3 May 2016). "Ligue 1: Pressenti en Azerbaïdjan, Alban Lafont finira la saison avec le TFC". 20 Minutes (in French). Retrieved 9 May 2016.
    13. ↑ "Équipe de France, Alban Lafont et Malang Sarr avec les U18 pour le Tournoi de Limoges". Goal (in French). 28 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
    14. ↑ "Lafarge Foot Avenir 2016". Jeunesse Sportive Lafarge Limoges (in French). 9 October 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
    15. ↑ Jaquin, Alexandre (1 December 2015). "Toulouse: cinq choses à savoir sur le prodige Alban Lafont". RMC Sport (in French). Retrieved 7 December 2015.
    16. 1 2 3 Raynaud, Claire (3 April 2016). "Les confidences de la mère d'Alban Lafont, députée du Burkina Faso". La Depeche (in French). Retrieved 26 June 2016.
    17. ↑ Yokhin, Michael (13 October 2016). "Toulouse's Alban Lafont is Ligue 1's answer to Gianluigi Donnarumma". ESPN. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
    18. ↑ "Alban Lafont, le gardien que le monde entier envie au TFC". LaDepeche (in French). 19 October 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    19. ↑ "Alban Lafont : "L'Equipe de France, c'est un objectif" Pour sa première télévis". Téléfoot (in French). 25 September 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.

    External links

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