Florent Balmont

Florent Balmont

Balmont with Lille in 2014
Personal information
Date of birth	(1980-02-02) 2 February 1980 (age 44)
Place of birth	Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, France
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1997–2002	Lyon
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2002–2004	Lyon	11	(1)
2003–2004	→ Toulouse (loan)	34	(0)
2004–2008	Nice	139	(4)
2008–2016	Lille	253	(7)
2016–2020	Dijon	75	(1)
Total		512	(13)
Managerial career
2020–2021	Limonest (staff)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Florent Balmont (born 2 February 1980) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Career

Balmont began his career at Olympique Lyonnais in the 2002–03 Ligue 1 season after coming through the junior ranks. In the 2003–04 season, Balmont was sent out on loan to Toulouse FC making a total of 35 appearances. After returning from loan, Balmont signed with OGC Nice. In his time with Lyon, Balmont won the 2002–03 championship and the 2004 Trophée des Champions, converting his penalty in the latter after the match went to a shoot-out. ^[1]

Balmont spent four seasons at Nice making 139 appearances before signing with Lille OSC. Balmont won an historic double with the club during the 2010–11 season, making 39 appearances across all competitions as Lille won the Ligue 1 title and the Coupe de France trophy. ^[2]

In July 2017, Balmont announced he had left Lille to join Dijon FCO, newly promoted to Ligue 1, on a two-year contract. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

On 11 May 2019, Balmont made his 500th Ligue 1 appearance in a 2–1 victory over Strasbourg. ^{[6] [7]} With the appearance, he moved up to 21st in the all-time Ligue 1 appearances and leads all active players in that category. ^[8]

Balmont announced his retirement from playing in May 2020 and stated his intention to go into coaching. ^[9] In July 2020, after his retirement, Balmont began his training as a coach, as he was hired as a U-20 coach and member of the first team staff at Championnat National 3 club FC Limonest Dardilly Saint-Didier. ^[10] He left the club at the end of the season. ^[11]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Lyon	2002–03 [12]	Ligue 1	9	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	–		10	0
	2004–05 [12]	Ligue 1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	–		2	1
	Total		11	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	12	1
Toulouse (loan)	2003–04 [12]	Ligue 1	34	0	2	0	1	0	–		–		37	0
Nice	2004–05 [12]	Ligue 1	34	4	2	0	1	0	0	0	–		37	4
	2005–06 [12]	Ligue 1	37	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	–		41	1
	2006–07 [12]	Ligue 1	32	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	–		34	0
	2007–08 [12]	Ligue 1	36	0	2	1	2	0	0	0	–		40	1
	Total		139	4	5	1	8	1	0	0	0	0	152	6
Lille	2008–09 [12]	Ligue 1	34	0	4	0	1	1	0	0	–		39	1
	2009–10 [12]	Ligue 1	35	2	0	0	1	0	12	1	–		48	3
	2010–11 [12]	Ligue 1	27	0	5	0	1	0	6	0	–		39	0
	2011–12 [12]	Ligue 1	30	2	3	0	2	0	5	0	1 [lower-alpha 1]	1	41	3
	2012–13 [12]	Ligue 1	34	2	2	1	1	0	7	0	–		44	3
	2013–14 [12]	Ligue 1	35	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	–		37	0
	2014–15 [12]	Ligue 1	30	1	1	0	3	0	10	1	–		44	2
	2015–16 [12]	Ligue 1	28	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	–		31	0
	Total		253	7	17	1	12	1	40	2	1	1	323	12
Dijon	2016–17 [12]	Ligue 1	23	0	0	0	0	0	–		–		23	0
	2017–18 [12]	Ligue 1	21	1	1	0	1	0	–		–		23	1
	2018–19 [12]	Ligue 1	20	0	4	1	2	0	–		2 [lower-alpha 2]	0	28	1
	2019–20 [12]	Ligue 1	11	0	4	0	1	0	–		–		16	0
	Total		75	1	9	1	4	0	0	0	2	0	90	2
Dijon II	2018–19 [13]	National 3	1	0	–		–		–		–		1	0
Career total			513	13	33	3	26	2	40	2	3	1	615	21

1. Appearance in 2011 Trophée des Champions
2. Appearances in Ligue 1 relegation play-offs

Honours

Lyon

• Ligue 1: 2002–03
• Trophée des Champions: 2004

Lille

• Ligue 1: 2010–11
• Coupe de France: 2010–11

References

1. "Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 Olympique Lyonnais" (in French). Ligue 1. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
2. "Balmont urges Lille to stop selling". ESPN. 3 August 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
3. "Balmont, de Lille à Dijon". So Foot (in French). 8 July 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
4. "Florent Balmont est Dijonnais! (in French)". www.dfco.fr. 8 July 2016. Archived from the original on 13 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
5. "Florent Balmont player profile". Ligue 1.
6. "BALMONT, 500 AU COMPTEUR". lfp.fr.
7. "Dijon FCO - RC Strasbourg Alsace ( 2-1 ) - Highlights - (DFCO - RCSA) / 2018-19". Ligue 1 Conforama Official. 11 May 2019. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
8. "500 matchs en Ligue 1 pour Florent Balmont : «C'est une grosse fierté», surtout avec la victoire" (in French). Infos Dijon. 12 May 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
9. Jay, Edward (2 May 2020). "Sa retraite, son envie d'entraîner... les confidences de Florent Balmont". RMC Sport (in French). Retrieved 23 February 2021.
10. FLORENT BALMONT REJOINT LE FCLSD ^{[ permanent dead link ]}, fcldsd.fr, 4 July 2020
11. L’ancien milieu du DFCO, Florent Balmont, décroche le BEF, bienpublic.com, 31 May 2021
12. "Florent Balmont » Club matches". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
13. "F. Balmont". Soccerway. Retrieved 23 February 2021.

External links

• Florent Balmont – French league stats at LFP – also available in French (archived)
• Florent Balmont at ESPN FC
• Florent Balmont at Soccerway