English Premier League - Player Profile: Bacary Sagna
Sagna was born in Sens, Bourgogne which is located in France. Known as Bac by a majority of his team mates, the French right back currently plays his club football at Arsenal F.C in the English Premier League. He is widely regarded by many at the club as the best young right back in the World. He also played for the French national team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Sagna started off his football career in France despite being of Senegalese decent. His first club was F.C Sens but he quickly left his home town club and joined Auxerre’s youth academy. After graduating from his Auxerre’s youth academy, Sagna broke through to the club’s first team. He made over eighty seven appearances for the French club in Ligue 1 and was also part of the club’s squad which won the French Cup in the year 2005.
Bac also played in the UEFA Cup for Auxerre in each of the three seasons that he spent with the club. He made a total of seventeen appearances in the European cup competition. Bacary was also voted as the number one right back in French football’s first division by French football fans.
In the summer of 2007, Sagna moved away from Arsenal to join Auxerre for an undisclosed fee or around nine million pounds, the deal that was struck between Arsenal and the French club Auxerre also had a clause of further two million pound payment that would be made to Auxerre by Arsenal, depending on the amount of appearances and success, Sagna has at the London club.
Currently, Sagna wears the number three shirt; a shirt which was previously worn by Arsenal’s left back defender, Ashley Cole. The French full back made his debut for Arsenal in a friendly game between Genclerbirligi and them on 19th of July 2007. The match was held in Austria.
On 13th of February 2008, seven days before Arsenal were scheduled to play the second leg of their quarter final match against Milan in the UEFA Champions League, Bac’s older brother Omar Sagna died at the age of twenty eight, however Sagna stood strong and participated for Arsenal in the quarter final match, which the English giants went onto win by two goals to nil. The French defender scored his first ever goal for Arsenal off a header from a corner kick, this goal came against Arsenal’s rivals Chelsea but unfortunately later on in the game, Sagna sustained an injury and was substituted by the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger.
At the end of the 2007-2008 season, Sagna was named in the Professional Footballer’s Association’s team of the year (PFA Team of the year). Before the 2008-2009 season got under way, Sagna signed a new contract at Arsenal, which confirmed that the versatile defender would stay with the former English champions till 2014. On signing the contract, Sagna expressed his love for Arsenal by naming them as a great club. He also praised Wenger and said that soon Arsenal will be competing for all the trophies.
However, Bacary was unable to reproduce his old form in the 2008-2009 season as well as for the 2009-2010 season, his displays for Arsenal were hampered by numerous injuries he suffered over the course of the last two season. Despite being under contract at Arsenal, Sagna has been linked with a move away from England towards Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
Up till now, Arsenal have been successful in keeping the French defender with them, who will be looking to capture his old form once again, form which made him one of the top defenders in the English Premier League.
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