Born on this day in 1979 is Pascal Chimbonda, Guadalupe’s most famous export behind the delicious melon and the second most important Pascal of all time after the esteemed mathematician Blaise. Chimbonda made 16 appearances for the club.
Chimbonda began his career at Le Havre, spending four years at the club before relegation saw the defender move on to Bastia. After Bastia were relegated in July 2005, he left the club. Despite this early trend of jumping ship after his team was relegated, Chimbonda’s next move did not scream opportunism. He turned down a move to Marseille in favour of a transfer to Wigan Athletic, which looks like a huge mistake on paper. He knocked back a city whose culinary exports include the delicious Bouillabaisse, a stew made from three exotic fish, to move to a town that invented pie barm pee wet – a meat and potato pie stuffed between two bits of buttered bread.
However, the move proved to be really fruitful for Chimbonda as he was one of the stand out players in Wigan’s inaugural Premier League season. He only missed one Premier League game for the Latics and was named in PFA Team of the Year for the 2005–06 season. He was the best right back in the league, ahead of players like Gary Neville.
On the back of his strong Wigan performances, Chimbonda made the squad for France at the 2006 world cup. This means that the full back probably has an undeserved World Cup runners up medal, despite only ever making the bench. He made a solitary France appearance in his career.
Despite the relative lack of aspiration in his signing for Wigan, Chimbonda’s ambitious nature resurfaced again when he handed in his transfer request after a Wigan defeat. He called Wigan a ‘stepping stone’ to move to a better club and was finally transferred to Tottenham after a summer of negotiations culminated in a deadline day move in 2006. Chimbonda will not be favourably remembered by Spurs fans as he demonstrated a poor attitude in his time there and struggled to recapture his form.
He reacted badly to being substituted during the club's Carling Cup final win over Chelsea and at one point in a match against Newcastle, he slapped Nicky Butt in the face with his glove; provoking a scuffle between the two sides. It was maybe the latter incident which made Roy Keane sign him from Spur’s, rather than his average performances. Keane had gone Spurs crazy in his recruitment that window and Chimbonda followed Teemu Tainio to Wearside. Steed Malbranque arrived later on.
We all know that Malbranque was a success, but it is easy to forget the other two. After his handful of performances, Chimbonda was resigned by Spurs at the end of the season. He only made five appearances on his return to White Hart Lane and we were believed to have recouped what we paid for the full back. Truly a strange series of events.
He then had a spell at Blackburn before his contract was terminated with immediate effect in 2011. Then, he went to QPR where he was released again shortly after joining. He joined Doncaster for a bit, trained with Market Drayton Town, then trained for Tranmere Rovers and then actually re-joined Market Drayton on a non-contract basis, also announcing that he would play for free. In 2013, he went to another English club, Carlisle before moving back to France at AC Arles-Avignon.
His career trajectory was a bizarre one. Surely common sense would prevail after having a whole host of English clubs and he would retire in his native France? Interestingly, no. His career took another interesting turn when he joined Washington, coming out of retirement to do so. That’s Washington in Sunderland, not DC United. It is surreal that this relatively forgotten footballer turned up in the ninth tier of English football. If anyone has watched him, feel free to email in any memories of him playing for the club. I had to rack my brains to think of any memories of him in a Sunderland shirt.
Overall his career is a strange one. The early promise he showed at Wigan was only really recaptured at Carlisle United. He also played three games for Guadalupe before playing for France. In conclusion, Pascal Chimbonda is a man of contrasts. Ambitious transfer request hander-inner on the one hand, but also a man who has played for free and languished in the ninth tier of English football on the other. He was once the best right back in England, but his time at Sunderland is very forgettable. He now plays for Durham City in the Wearside League Division One. Needless to say it's strange to see that he is still playing at 43 years old, especially at Durham City.
