Sidney Govou

Sidney Govou is a French former professional footballer, born on 27 July 1979, who played mainly as a left winger and was sometimes used as a striker. He stayed in school unusually late for a footballer and joined the Lyon youth academy at seventeen in 1996. He is best known for a long career at Lyon, where he won seven Ligue 1 titles, spent his whole professional career at the Stade Gerland until 2010 and won the 2001 Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award. In May 2008 he scored the only goal of the Coupe de France final against Paris Saint-Germain, the club's first cup success since 1973. He then played for Panathinaikos in Greece and for newly promoted Évian in Ligue 1. For France he was a finalist at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, scored twice against Italy in a Euro 2008 qualifier and played at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.