01/07/2007 16:50
The board of West Ham United is delighted to announce the signing of French
international midfielder Julien Faubert from Bordeaux for a fee of nine
million euros.
The 23-year-old put pen to paper on a five-year contract at Upton Park on
Sunday morning and becomes Alan Curbishley's second summer signing following
the arrival of Scott Parker from Newcastle United last month.
Born in Le Havre on August 1, 1983, Julien headed south in 1998 when he was
offered a place at the AS Cannes youth academy, famous for nurturing such
talents as Zinédine Zidane, Johan Micoud and Patrick Vieira. He went on to
make 45 senior appearances for the club before moving to Bordeaux in the
summer of 2004.
Having established himself early on, he was used mainly as a right winger by
coach Ricardo during 2005-06 as Bordeaux finished runners-up behind
Olympique Lyonnais to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.
The fast and powerful midfielder then earned a call-up to the French
national squad following last year's World Cup finals, making his
international debut against Bosnia on August 16, when he scored the winning
goal in a 2-1 victory and became the first player to wear the famous number
10 shirt following the retirement of Zinedine Zidane.
Julien went on to make 34 appearances for Bordeaux in 2006-07, scoring five
goals, including two in the Champions League, as the French side narrowly
missed out on qualification to the last 16 of the competition, from a group
that included Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven and Galatasaray.
Julien became one of the hottest properties in French football last season,
and the Hammers beat off interest from AS Roma and Rangers to secure his
services.
Mr Magnusson says: "I am delighted to welcome Julien to Upton Park and feel
sure that he will become a very successful signing for the Club.
"He is one of the most highly-rated young players in European football and
many clubs were attempting to sign him, so we are very pleased that he has
decided to join West Ham United.
"I have been very impressed by his desire and ambition and I think he will
be very popular among our supporters."
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