Frank Leboeuf

Leboeuf was born in Marseille[5] and raised in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer.[6] He was introduced to football by his father, a former Stade Rennais coach,[7] who trained children in the sport.[8] After starting his career in 1986 in the lower divisions of the French leagues, Leboeuf moved to Laval in 1988. In 1991, he moved to Strasbourg and played there until 1996, when he made a switch to English club Chelsea for £2.5m.

He played over 200 games for the club and scored 24 goals, mainly from penalties and set pieces.[9] With Chelsea, he won two FA Cups, one League Cup and one Cup Winners' Cup.[9] He left in 2001 for club Olympique Marseille, before finishing out his career in Qatar.[9] Despite his numerous accolades, Leboeuf never won a first-division title in Europe or the UEFA Champions League.[10]

For France, Leboeuf was capped 50 times, scoring four goals. His first two came on 6 September 1995 in a Euro 96 qualifier at home to Azerbaijan, contributing to a 10–0 win that remains France's record.[11] Although he was mainly a substitute in the 1998 World Cup (Played 3, Started 2, DNP 4),[12] he stepped in for red carded Laurent Blanc to play in the final,[13] a 3–0 win against Brazil, a match in which he man-marked the highly rated striker Ronaldo.[14]

In a Euro 2000 qualifier on 9 June 1999, Leboeuf scored the only goal from the penalty spot with five minutes to go as world champions France struggled away to amateurs Andorra.[15][16] He received a winner's medal at the finals in Belgium and the Netherlands, though Blanc and Marcel Desailly were the preferred defensive partnership, including in the final.[17][18]

He scored a late winner against co-hosts South Korea on 26 May ahead of the 2002 FIFA World Cup (3–2).[19] Holders France were eliminated in the group stage in a shock, and he retired from the team.[20]

International goals

Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Leboeuf goal.

List of international goals scored by Frank Leboeuf

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	6 September 1995	Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France	Azerbaijan	5–0	10–0	Euro 1996 qualifier
2				8–0
3	9 June 1999	Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain	Andorra	1–0	1–0	Euro 2000 qualifier
4	26 May 2002	Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon, South Korea	South Korea	3–2	3–2	Friendly

A cultured centre-back, Leboeuf was noted for his long range passing ability [21] and also for his consistent penalty-taking throughout his career. He took 15 penalties in competitive games for Chelsea, missing just 2 times.

Leboeuf in 2011

In 2001, whilst still playing football for Chelsea, Leboeuf had made his first acting appearance in the film Taking Sides.[21][22]

Following his retirement from competitive football, Leboeuf spent two years living in Los Angeles. During this time he played for amateur team Hollywood United, alongside celebrity team-mates such as Vinnie Jones, Steve Jones and Anthony LaPaglia.[23] Leboeuf studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute in West Hollywood, keeping a low profile, and won his first acting work as a TV commentator, for a pay cheque totalling $100, which he keeps as a memento.[8]

Leboeuf acted in several theatre plays in France,[21] including starring alongside Jean-Francois Garreaud in L'intrus in 2010[24] and a role in the play Avec Ma Belle Mère et Moi.[8] In 2014, Leboeuf played a French Resistance fighter in the World War II film Allies[13][21] and a doctor in the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.[25]

Leboeuf works as a sports commentator and analyst for RMC and ESPN in the United States and he writes a column for Chelsea News in the UK.[26][7][8] In 2010, he was a contestant on the reality television show Koh-Lanta in the Koh-Lanta, le choc des héros special series.[27] He was forced to depart the show after two episodes due to a back injury he had suffered in a car accident shortly before the series commenced.[24] In 2014, Leboeuf made an appearance in the television comedy series Nos Chers Voisins[8][28] and began writing a column for Téléfoot.[22]

In 2019, Leboeuf competed on the first season of Mask Singer, the French version of the global franchise Masked Singer, disguised as a peacock.[29]

Leboeuf is married to actress Chrislaure Nollet[21][30] and has two children, Jade and Hugo, from his first marriage to Beatrice.[6] His amateur sporting hobbies include tennis, swimming and boxing.[8]

Franck Leboeuf is the cousin of the hotelier Philippe Leboeuf.[31]

Following the 1998 World Cup, he was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1998.[1]

Strasbourg

• Division 2 play-offs: 1991–92[32]
• Coupe de France runner-up: 1994–95[32]
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1995[33]

Chelsea

• FA Cup: 1996–97,[9] 1999–2000[9]
• Football League Cup: 1997–98[9]
• FA Charity Shield: 2000[34]
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1997–98[9]
• UEFA Super Cup: 1998[35]

Al-Sadd

• Qatar Stars League: 2003–04[36]

Al-Wakrah

• Sheikh Jassim Cup: 2004–05[37]

France

• FIFA World Cup: 1998[38]
• UEFA European Championship: 2000[39]
• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2001[40]

Orders

• Knight of the Legion of Honour: 1998[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frank Leboeuf.

• Frank Leboeuf at the French Football Federation (in French)
• Frank Leboeuf at the French Football Federation (archived) (in French)
• Frank Leboeuf – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Frank Leboeuf at IMDb