Club career
Olympique de Marseille
Born in Lavelanet, Ariège, Barthez made his first division debut for Toulouse on 21 September 1991, against AS Nancy Lorraine. He joined Olympique de Marseille in 1992, and won both the French championship and the Champions League at the end of his first season in Marseille. His performance in the final against A.C. Milan was one of the best ever seen for a goalkeeper, and the 1993 victory made him the youngest goalkeeper to win a Champions League title until Íker Casillas did so in 2000.
However, OM would be stripped of their domestic title, though not of the Champions League crown, due to their involvement in a domestic match fixing scandal, and a year later (1994) would suffer a forced relegation to the second division due to a related financial bankruptcy. Barthez's 1993-1994 season is seen by many as his best in the Championnat, his many saves and the goalscoring quality of Sonny Anderson allowed l'OM to finish second this year. He stayed with his club in Division 2 for the 1994-1995 season despite many offers from elite French clubs.
In 1995, Barthez joined AS Monaco and won Ligue 1 titles in 1997 and 2000.
Manchester United
As a result of Barthez's success in the World Cup and Euro, he caught the attention of Manchester United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who was searching for a star goalkeeper to replace the departed Peter Schmeichel. Barthez joined United for £7.8 million in 2000. He was later reunited with national teammate Laurent Blanc who joined Manchester United in 2001. The Barthez-Blanc head-kissing ritual was performed at the start of Champions League matches.
Well-known for being eccentric, he started out well for Manchester United. His first season was a triumph as he answered all the questions about how he would handle rainy Manchester compared to sunny Monaco. Barthez performed brilliantly throughout the season and became a crowd favourite. The fans loved his eccentric behaviour, his taunting dribbles and step-overs past opposing strikers, and most importantly, his remarkable reaction saves. Very often was it was critical saves that kept United from defeat or dropping valuable points, helping United to the 2000-2001 Premier League title, which was United's third in a row.
The 2001-2002 season was split into two parts for him. In the first half was a nightmare. The Frenchman seemed to be taking some unnecessary risks outside his penalty area, and his antics began to have consequences that allowed undeserved goals from opposing teams. There was much speculation as to what was the source of Barthez's decline, and critics urged him to be dropped. However, Sir Alex Ferguson had faith in his goalkeeper and stuck by him. Consequently in the second half of the season, Barthez repaired his reputation with consistent, solid performances and the spectacular saves that he was famous for.
In 2002-2003 Fabien helped United create the best defensive record in the Premiership with a more steady approach, which led to another Premiership crown. One highlight was a fabulous save to deny Dietmar Hamann's 30 yard rocket at Anfield as United held on to win 2-1. However, numerous blunders, including a notorious one against Deportivo La Coruña, [1] led to people making many jokes about him. Barthez was also widely criticised in United's exit to Real Madrid in the Champions League, especially for Ronaldo's opener which beat him to the near post. It would prove to be his last ever game with United as Sir Alex Ferguson's patience had finally run out. Barthez was dropped for the final 3 games of the season.
Return to Olympique de Marseille
In October 2003, after American newcomer Tim Howard won the starting goalkeeper's job from Barthez, United agreed to release Barthez from his contract at Old Trafford after the 2003-04 season, and also agreed to loan Barthez out to Olympique de Marseille for the remainder of that season. However, FIFA blocked the loan deal on the grounds that it was not agreed upon within the international transfer window. The two clubs agreed on a loan deal after the transfer window reopened on 1 January 2004, and Barthez joined Olympique de Marseille soon afterwards. On 27 April, Olympique de Marseille and Barthez agreed to a two-and-a-half-year contract which would keep him at the club until spring 2006.
Barthez was involved in a controversy due to his actions during a friendly match between OM and Morocco's Raja Casablanca on 12 February 2005. With 10 minutes left, an OM player was sent off, and a brawl erupted between players on the pitch. Barthez was reported for spitting on the Moroccan referee. On 21 April, Barthez was summoned to a hearing before the disciplinary committee of the French Football Federation; the following day, he received a six-month suspension, with the last three months being suspended. In an unusual move, the federal council of the FFF appealed the suspension, arguing that the punishment should have been for a minimum of six full months. Eventually, his suspension was extended to six full months due to political pressures.
Retirement
On August 8, 2006, Barthez announced he was still hoping to play professional football for another two years, insisting he was also looking to continue his career in the French international setup. His ideal scenario would be a return to first club Toulouse, where he could be close enough to allow him to take care of his sick mother. But he said if he did not have a club by 31 August he would not carry on with football. On October 5, 2006 it was confirmed that he has retired from football, having failed to agree a return to Toulouse. Barthez commented: "The only club I wanted to go to was not so happy to have me. It happens and you have to live with it."
In addition to his retirement from club play, he also became the fourth World Cup-participating goalkeeper in less than a week to officially call it quits from national team play, following Brazil's Dida and Marcos, and Australian international Željko Kalac.
Comeback
In mid-December 2006, it was announced that Barthez could return to football by signing a contract with French Ligue 1 side FC Nantes Atlantique, who have revealed interest in him since they have been lacking an experienced goalkeeper following Mickaël Landreau's move to Paris Saint-Germain last summer. The club's two main goalkeepers Vladimir Stojković and Vincent Briant are only 23 and 20 years old and both of them had no Ligue 1 experience prior to this season, while the third goalkeeper, the 31-year-old Tony Heurtebis, has only played three Ligue 1 matches last season.
On 17 December, 2006 Nantes has confirmed that Barthez will join the club. He is rumoured to have been offered a six-month contract with the option of being extended to another two years upon the end of the season. Barthez also announced a possible international comeback. Barthez commented on French television channel TF1 that: "If Nantes had called me two months ago I would probably have said no. Some 15 clubs called me but I was not ready. Nantes are a great club and their president found the right words."[2]
International career
1998 World Cup
On 26 May 1994, he won his first cap for France against Australia. Though Barthez missed Euro 1996 where his country went all the way to the semi-finals, he gained the number one goalkeeping position shortly afterwards and would not relinquish it for a decade.
In the 1998 World Cup which was hosted by his home country, Barthez conceded only two goals in seven games and bagged the Yashin Award as the best goalkeeper of the tournament. Barthez was also well-known during the tournament for letting teammate and good friend Laurent Blanc kiss his shaved head before the start of every match, supposedly for good luck. Barthez was an integral part of his national team's inaugural triumph which also made it the first time in 20 years that a host had won the World Cup; the highlight being a 3-0 shutout of defending champion Brazil in the finals. During the game, Barthez made a spectacular save on Brazillian superstar Ronaldo, doing his trademark leap/step-over the attacking striker to grab the ball, which injured Ronaldo in the process. Barthez was afterwards one of the most popular national players in France, second only to Zinédine Zidane.
Two years later, Barthez was again the starter as his country won Euro 2000. It was the first time in over twenty years that a national team held both the World Cup and Euro titles, a feat last accomplished by West Germany in 1974. After that triumph, France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001-2002.
He played on France's World Cup team again in 2002 in which they exited in the first round without winning a game or scoring a goal. He was also the starter in Euro 2004, saving David Beckham's penalty shot in the round robin, but France was upset in the quarterfinals by eventual winners Greece.
2006 World Cup
His placement as starting goalkeeper on France's 2006 World Cup Squad, despite a substantial public campaign in support of Grégory Coupet, was surprising to many. This decision was met with derision in the French press and also led to Coupet walking out of the national squad before the tournament, though he was later to return. The move was viewed by some as a desire to keep the veterans of France's 1998 World Cup victory on the team.
France had a slow start in the group stage, drawing their first two games and putting their playoff chances at risk. Fortunately, Barthez's team found their form and won their final round robin match 2-0 to advance to the next stage, where they upset heavily favoured Spain 3-1 in the round of 16.
In defeating Brazil, 1-0 on July 1, 2006, Barthez - having made only one save in the game - became the first keeper to blank the Brazilian team in consecutive World Cup finals matches, the first being the 1998 final (3-0). France is now one of only two nations (along with Argentina) to have shut Brazil out twice in the World Cup finals, and the first to have done it in consecutive matches, both times with Barthez in goal.
Barthez again kept a clean sheet in the semi-final against Portugal as Zinédine Zidane's penalty shot stood as the winning goal. Memorable was near the end of the game when a French defender fumbled the ball, enabling a Portuguese player to mount a last moment attack. Barthez scrambled out of the net and blocked the first shot; a linesman later ruled that the Portuguese player had been offside and if the goal had been scored it would not have counted.
During the final against Italy, Barthez briefly captained his team for the remainder of the second period of extra time after Zidane was sent off. During the penalty shootout, teammate David Trézéguet's missed shot proved decisive, as neither Barthez nor his Italian counterpart Gianluigi Buffon made a save.
