Thomas Meunier

Thomas Meunier
Personal information
Full name Thomas Meunier
Date of birth (1991-09-12) 12 September 1991
Place of birth Sainte-Ode, Belgium
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position Right back
Club information
Current team
 Paris Saint-Germain
Number 12
Youth career
1996–2002 RUS Saint-Ode
2002–2004 RUS Givry
2004–2006 Standard Liège
2006–2009 Virton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2009–2011 Virton 46 (14)
2011–2016 Club Brugge 157 (17)
2016– Paris Saint-Germain 7 (1)
National team‡
2006 Belgium U15 1 (0)
2011–2012 Belgium U21 7 (1)
2013– Belgium 15 (1)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 October 2016.

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

Thomas Meunier (pronounced: [tɔ.mɑ mø.nje]; born 12 September 1991) is a Belgian footballer who plays as a right back for French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and Belgium.

Club career

Club Brugge

Meunier was signed by Club Brugge from Belgian Third Division team Virton in January 2011, with the actual transfer to be completed during the 2011 summer transfer period. A few days earlier, Club Brugge had just missed out on the transfers of Dalibor Veselinović and Jelle Van Damme and therefore wanted to make sure Meunier would not become the third near miss. Club Brugge managed to complete the deal before any of the several other interested Belgian clubs (Anderlecht, Standard Liège, Sint-Truiden and Zulte Waregem) could.[1]

On 31 July 2011, Club Brugge played its first match of the 2011–12 season against Westerlo in which Meunier was allowed to play the final 20 minutes. Meunier played a decent match, getting on the score sheet in the process.[2] At the time, Meunier was played as a striker or right winger, before he was formed into a right back by his following coaches Juan Carlos Garrido and Georges Leekens due to a lack of players of that position after the injuries of his teammates Tom Høgli and Davy De Fauw.

Meunier also played every minute of the 2015 Belgian Cup Final against rivals RSC Anderlecht, which ended in a 2-1 win for Club Brugge which enabled it to win its first Belgian Cup since 2007.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 3 July 2016, Paris Saint-Germain announced that Meunier had just joined PSG on a four-year deal that would tie him to the club until 30 June 2020.[3]The transfer fee was reported to be 7 million euros.[4]In the 2016 International Champions Cup friendly match against Real Madrid in Ohio, Thomas Meunier scored twice to help PSG to a 3–1 win. On 6 Aug 2016, Meunier made his first competitive appearance for PSG by coming on as a substitute for David Luiz in the 76th minute of the 2016 Trophée des Champions. On 1 Nov, Meunier assisted Blaise Matuidi's opening goal and scored the winning goal with a stunning 90th-minute side-footed curling volley in PSG's 2-1 away win against Basel in a 2016-17 UEFA Champions League Group A match; it was Meunier's first competitive goal for PSG.[5][6]

International career

In September 2011, Meunier was called up for the Belgium U21 team and scored in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against Azerbaijan U21.[7] On 14 November 2013, Meunier made his debut for the Belgian national team in a home friendly match against Colombia, which was preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He played the whole game and performed quite decently, but made a mistake by letting opposing striker Radamel Falcao through the offside trap and thus allowing the opening goal. The game eventually resulted in a 0-2 loss for Belgium. He was also brought in via the substitutes bench in 2 other friendlies, against Japan (2-3 loss) and Iceland (3-1 win).

Meunier started two games in the UEFA Euro 2016 group stage, playing the full 90 minutes at right back in shutout victories over the Republic of Ireland and Sweden. He also started in Belgium's 4-0 round of 16 win against Hungary.[8] On 13 November 2016, Meunier scored his first ever international goal for Belgium in a 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification match against Estonia. He scored the first goal of the game which Belgium eventually won 8-1. [9]

International goals

As of match played 14 November 2016. Belgium score listed first, score column indicates score after each Meunier goal.
International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition
1 14 November 2016King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium15 Estonia1–08–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

Club Brugge

Paris Saint Germain

References

  1. ↑ "Final trick of Devroe: the signing of Meunier" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-01-18.
  2. ↑ "Meunier scores at debut in first division:"Most beautiful day"" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-08-01.
  3. ↑ "Thomas Meunier signs four-year deal". PSG official website. 3 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Paris Saint-Germain sign Thomas Meunier from FC Bruges". Football Factz. 3 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Arsenal, Paris, Atlético, Bayern go through". www.uefa.com. 1 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Thomas Meunier wins it for PSG while Unai Emery's attackers flop". ESPN FC. 1 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "U21 beat Azerbaijan in EC qualification" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-09-06.
  8. ↑ "Thomas Meunier". UEFA. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  9. ↑ "Belgium 8-1 Estonia". BBC Sports. 13 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.

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