Châteauroux (France),
Lens (France), Marseille (France), PSG (France), Inter Milan (Italy),
Tottenham (england), Toulouse (France)
Honours
1999 League Cup
winner (Lens)
Biography
Stéphane Dalmat (born February 16,
1979 in Joué les Tours) is a professional French footballer.
Dalmat plays in midfield and is a very versatile player who can
occupy a variety of positions. He has good technique, good ball
control and is pacey, which has often seen managers use him wide
on the left of midfield. Despite being left footed, he is
comfortable with either foot and also has a good engine and
plenty of stamina.
His first professional match was for Châteauroux against Cannes,
which was lost 2-1 on 30 August 1997.
He was snapped up by Lens in 1998-99, playing as an attacking
central midfielder and earned favourable comparisons to the
“wooden” Zinedine Zidane. He quickly moved on to Marseille but,
after a dodgy season for the team - where he was often used out
of position at left back by a coach he did not get on with - he
moved on to Paris Saint-Germain. There he formed a mouth-watering
attacking midfield alongside Ali Benarbia and Laurent Robert. A
new coach came in and it all got ugly before Dalmat moved on to
Internazionale.
Two-and-a-half seasons of frustration at Inter Milan – during
which time he never succeeded in securing an extended run in the
team – were followed by a loan move to Tottenham Hotspur for the
rest of the 2003-04season, for what looked like an ideal
replacement for Christian Ziege. The playmaker’s fortunes did
not get much better at White Hart Lane where, despite winning
over the Spurs fans with some dynamic performances, he did not
win over the confidence of then Coach David Pleat.
His debut for Spurs came on 13 September 2003 as a substitute in
a 4-2 defeat at Chelsea. However, in true Tottenham tradition,
he was injured for most of the season, but had impressed in a
left midfield role before his injury.
Dalmat's performances in the first three months of the 2004/05
season were those of a man desperate to prove a point. To this
day many still say that Dalmat wasn't given a fair chance at
Spurs where he played outstandingly well in most games he played
in but was often very unpredictable on the pitch, even to his
own team-mates.
On his arrival at Toulouse in the summer of 2004, the midfielder
declared his reasons behind the switch: “Playing for Toulouse
will be a beautiful adventure from both a human and sporting
point of view.” His hunch that the Municipal Stadium was the
ideal place to rebuild his career proved correct. Dalmat was
outstanding in the early weeks of his Toulouse spell, starting
games on the left flank and striking up a superb understanding
with his good friend from his days at Lens, the France forward
Daniel Moreira.
Relief at rediscovering the sort of form that attracted Inter
three years ago disappeared in October 2004, however, when he
fractured a bone in his foot in a friendly match against Nantes.
Just days before the injury, Toulouse defender Lucien Aubey had
said prophetically: “Some of the players are exhausted because
we’ve been playing a match every three days. A guy like Dalmat,
who hasn’t played much in recent months, must find it especially
hard.”
Dalmat returned to play in the last few months of the season,
but Toulouse's bid to seal a European finish had floundered in
the absence of Dalmat and Moreira, both of whom missed a large
chunk of the season through injury.
On 13 July 2005, Racing de Santander announced the signing of
Dalmat, who will move to La Liga under a five-year deal.
Santander followed up his capture with that of his brother
Wilfried, who has followed Stéphane to El Sardinero, penning a
season-long deal.
However, the French midfielder has not had the expected impact
at Racing since his switch from Toulouse last summer.
Additionally, the brothers sustained criticism from president
Manuel Huerta after returning from their Christmas holidays four
days late. The attack on their attitudes appeared to have
hastened their exit from the La Liga outfit, but neither were
sold by the club during the January 2006 tranfer window.
