Bixente Lizarazu

Lore & Background

Lizarazu rose through the ranks at Bordeaux, where he was part of a team that finished second in the French First Division in 1989–1990, were administratively relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1990–1991 due to financial problems, and then won promotion from the Second Division in the 1991–92 season. His Bordeaux team finished runners-up in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. As he is a native of the French Basque Country, he was able to join Athletic Club in 1996, but did not nail down a starting spot during his one season at the club. In 1997, he joined German giants Bayern Munich, where he enjoyed much success. He won six Bundesliga championships with the team, as well as the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, where he scored his penalty in the shootout in the final. In a 12-year international career from 1992 to 2004, Lizarazu earned 97 caps for the France national team. He played in three UEFA European Championships and two FIFA World Cups for France, winning the 1998 World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000.

Reader's Guide

Lizarazu was born on 9 December 1969 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and grew up in Hendaye. He began his professional career with Bordeaux, joining the club's youth setup as a 15-year-old in 1984. He was retrained to play as a counter-attacking left-back. He appeared 299 times for Bordeaux, scoring 28 goals. He spent one season with Athletic Bilbao, making 16 league appearances. He transferred to Bayern Munich in 1997 and made 268 appearances in all competitions for Bayern between 1997 and 2006, scoring eight goals. He was capped 97 times for France, scoring two goals. After retirement, he got involved in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, becoming European champion in the Blue Belt Senior 1 Light Division in 2009. He is also a keen surfer and works as a football pundit.

Did You Know?

• He was the first Frenchman to play for Athletic Bilbao, which has a policy of selecting only players of Basque birth or heritage.
• He wore shirt number 69 at Bayern Munich because he was born in 1969, his height is 1.69 m, and he weighed 69 kg.
• He is a native speaker of Basque and French, and also speaks Spanish, German and English.