Olivier Dacourt

Olivier Yohan Dacourt (born 25 September 1974) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is also a former French international and is best known for his spells at English side Leeds United and Italian clubs Roma and Inter Milan.

Olivier Dacourt
Dacourt in 2005
Personal information
Full name Olivier Yohan Dacourt[1]
Date of birth (1974-09-25) 25 September 1974[2]
Place of birth Montreuil, France
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[3]
Position(s) Midfielder[4]
Youth career
1989–1991 Aulnay-sous-Bois
1991–1992 Strasbourg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1998 Strasbourg 127 (4)
1998–1999 Everton 30 (2)
1999–2000 Lens 26 (1)
2000–2003 Leeds United 57 (3)
2003 → Roma (loan) 18 (0)
2003–2006 Roma 76 (2)
2006–2009 Inter Milan 34 (0)
2009 → Fulham (loan) 9 (0)
2009–2010 Standard Liège 8 (0)
Total 385 (12)
International career
2001–2004 France 21 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Early career

Dacourt was born in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis.[5] He made his debut in Division 1 with Strasbourg on 20 March 1993 in an away game with Auxerre, which Strasbourg lost 2–0. On 24 May 1997, he scored his first Ligue 1 goal for Strasbourg in an away match against Paris Saint-Germain, however, Strasbourg lost the match 2–1.

Dacourt transferred to Everton in 1998 and his debut game in the Premier League was a 0–0 draw against Aston Villa on 15 August 1998. On 23 September 1998, he scored his first goal in a League Cup tie against Huddersfield Town.[6] Dacourt became a fan favourite with the Everton supporters, but was booed at the club's final home game of the season in May 1999 against West Ham after comments in a French article that he was unhappy at the club and looking to leave in the summer.

Dacourt returned to France after one season at Everton playing for RC Lens, where he impressed and earned a multimillion-pound move back to the Premier League to the Yorkshire club Leeds United.

Leeds United

Dacourt joined Leeds United from Lens in a £7.2 million move in 2000, and broke Leeds' transfer record at the time. He proved to be an instant hero at Elland Road with his tenacious style and ball winning play. His time at Leeds saw them reach the Champions League semi finals and also finishing in the top 4 of the Premier League. He was a regular in centre midfield under manager David O'Leary, mainly partnering David Batty in Leeds' midfield. His form at Leeds also saw Dacourt become a regular for the French national side. But after the sacking of O'Leary, his replacement Terry Venables dropped Dacourt from the Leeds team and favoured players like Paul Okon ahead of him.

Venables had a public falling out with Dacourt, in which Venables claimed he 'would personally drive Dacourt' away from the club. With Leeds' financial problems Dacourt was loaned out to Roma, and during his time out on loan Venables was sacked and replaced by Peter Reid with many believing Dacourt would return, but during the summer his loan move to Roma was made permanent. Dacourt proclaimed that he would like to return to Leeds one day in the future after playing in his former teammate Lucas Radebe's testimonial.

Roma and Inter Milan

Dacourt joined Roma on loan, with an option to purchase for £4 million. He signed a contract worth €1.85 million in gross.[7] On 10 July 2003, Roma agreed to sign Dacourt outright for a new price: €5 million. Dacourt signed a 3-year contract, worth €4 million in gross each season.[8] After being on the losing side in the Coppa Italia final against Inter Milan in 2005–06, Dacourt joined the club from Roma on a two-year contract in accordance with the Bosman ruling.[9][10]

Originally signed as a backup player for Inter Milan, he became a key player of the league victory, in light of all the injuries to Patrick Vieira. On 2 December 2007, against Fiorentina, he damaged his left knee, with a torn cruciate ligament and damage to two other ligaments in it. He was expected to be out for the rest of the 2007–08 season.

In the 2008–09 season after recovering from injury, Dacourt did not feature as regularly and was not in Inter manager José Mourinho's plans.

Fulham and Standard Liège

On 2 February 2009, Dacourt joined English side Fulham on loan until the end of the 2008–09 season after being signed by Roy Hodgson.[11] However, he had to settle for being confined to mainly substitute appearances due to the impressive form of Fulham's midfield and also Dacourt picking up some injury niggles, Dacourt's move to Fulham was not made permanent come the summer, Dacourt briefly returned to Inter where his contract then expired and he became a free agent.

Dacourt signed a one-year contract with Standard Liège on 23 September 2009. He was brought in to replace Steven Defour who had an injury on his foot and should be inactive for three months, Defour was the central midfield partner to Axel Witsel.[12] On 8 February 2010, Standard Liège declared the end of his contract.[13]

International career

Dacourt played for France at the 1996 Summer Olympics.[14]

After impressing for Leeds United, his first senior appearance with the national team came against hosts South Korea in a match in the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001, which France won 0–5, as they went on to win the tournament. He was a member of the French team that won the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup and also appeared at UEFA Euro 2004.

International goals

(France score listed first, score column indicates score after each Dacourt goal)

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
110 September 2003Bežigrad Stadium, Ljubljana, Slovenia Slovenia2–02–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying

Personal life

He is the brother-in-law of fellow footballer Norman Sylla.[15]

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[16]
Club Season League Cup[lower-alpha 1] Continental[lower-alpha 2] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Strasbourg 1992–93 Division 1 60––60
1993–94 8010–90
1994–95 18010–190
1995–96 3405080470
1996–97 31181–392
1997–98 3031060393
Total 12741611401575
Everton 1998–99 Premier League 30261–363
Lens 1999–00 Division 1 2612092373
Leeds 2000–01 Premier League 33310140483
2001–02 1702060250
2002–03 70–2090
Total 57330200803
Roma (loan) 2002–03 Serie A 18050–230
Roma 2003–04 Serie A 2712040331
2004–05 2303020280
2005–06 2615070381
Total 762100130992
Inter Milan 2006–07 Serie A 2406070370
2007–08 901030130
2008–09 10––10
Total 34070100510
Fulham (loan) 2008–09 Premier League 9030–120
Standard Liège 2009–10 Pro League 80––80
Career total 3851252266250316
  1. Includes Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, FA Cup and EFL Cup.
  2. Includes UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Intertoto-Cup.


Honours

Strasbourg

Inter Milan

France

References
  1. "Entreprise Til Management" [Company Til Management] (in French). Manageo. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
    "Olivier Dacourt". BFM Business (in French). Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  2. "Olivier Dacourt". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  3. "Olivier Dacourt: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  4. "Olivier Dacourt". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  5. "Olivier Dacourt". L'Équipe. Paris. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  6. Phil Shaw (23 September 1998). "Dacourt drives Everton through". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 13 March 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
  7. "Comunicato" [Press Release] (PDF) (in Italian). A.S. Roma. 9 January 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  8. "Trasferimento a Titolo Definitivo di Olivier Dacourt" [Olivier Dacourt transfer in permanent deal] (PDF) (in Italian). A.S. Roma. 10 July 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  9. "Inter add three to their ranks". UEFA. 12 July 2006. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  10. "Dacourt, Maicon, Maxwell Sign for Inter". Inter Milan. 12 July 2006. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  11. "Olivier Dacourt joins Fulham". Inter Milan. 2 February 2009. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2009.
  12. Officiel : Dacourt au Standard Archived 27 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Olivier Dacourt Archived 12 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  14. "France - Squad". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  15. "Soccer: Crawley fail to get hot-shot". The Argus. 28 March 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  16. Olivier Dacourt at WorldFootball.net
  17. "O. Dacourt". Soccerway. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
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