French Revelations: Steve Savidan – The Tragic End Of A Journeyman Pro

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Ligue 1 : Steve Savidan (SM Caen)

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Almost 12 months ago exactly, French football reverberated in shock as Lilian Thuram, a veritable legend of the game, had to quit the sport due to heart problems.

On Saturday, an even crueller story was to unfold when Caen striker Steve Savidan was forced to hang up his boots for similar reasons.

Savidan’s name is unlikely to ring any bells with too many football supporters who do not follow Ligue 1, France’s elite division, but this 31-year-old journeyman professional now possesses one of the games most heart-wrenching stories.

Savidan’s career concluded when he announced his premature retirement from football on Saturday afternoon, beaten by a defective heart, rather than one of the countless blows he had suffered during a career that was only beginning to flourish at this twilight stage.

He may have made it to the top flight, but it was a long, hard battle for the striker, whose passion for the game kept him going through the deep troughs that would have broken lesser men.

Early Promise Fades

To say his beginnings in the professional game were modest would be an understatement. With hometown club Angers, an outfit that have flitted between the second and third tier of the French game over the last decade, he would not feature until he was 19, and even then he was forced to take up odd jobs away from the football field in order to make ends meet, including working in bars and even as a binman.

A reasonable return of 17 goals in 47 games would follow for SCO, who were not even playing in the professional levels of the French game during Savidan’s two-year stint.

Still, he had shown enough to justify a move to Chateauroux, where his career would decisively stutter. Three goals in 20 appearances was not deemed sufficient from the Ligue 2 side, sparking a run of four seasons for which he would feature for four different sides.

AC Ajaccio, Angers (again) and Beauvais would benefit from Savidan’s presence, though the magic he had displayed with SCO first time around seemed to have disappeared as he mustered only 12 goals in 97 league appearances.

As a result of a 23-game goalless streak with Beauvais, Savidan’s career was set to peter out with Angouleme, a side currently playing in the sixth flight of French football but who were, at that time, a third division side. But this proved to be the low point of a career that would eventually take him to the Stade de France, where he would feature proudly for his country.

Resurgent

The resurgence began with 12 goals in 37 games for the minnows, but the number of assists that Savidan made was also eye-catching – he setup team-mates on a staggering 14 occasions, thereby helping to contribute virtually a goal a game to the team’s cause. Although this did not help Beauvais avoid relegation, Savidan’s platform for self-improvement was laid.

Valenciennes were impressed, and the then third flight club would take a gamble on the 26-year-old that was to have a profound effect on both parties. VAFC had fallen upon hard times, stumbling hopelessly out of France’s elite in a rather embarrassing style and even falling as low as the fourth division in 2001-02.

Something was needed to kick-start the Stade Nungesser side, and that je ne sais quoi was provided by the man the VAFC support would come to affectionately know as ‘Savigol’. Indeed, he is credited with the rebirth of Valenciennes as a football club.

At the time, Savidan knew the stakes were high, though.

“When [head coach] Daniel Leclercq signed me in 2004, it was my last chance in professional football,” he said three years later.

But he need not have worried because success was immediate. Off the back of Savidan’s impressive 19 goal haul, VA were rocketed into Ligue 2 and back onto the French footballing map in some kind of meaningful way. But the club’s charge would not stop there, Savidan leading them to back-to-back league titles with a further 16 goals, before playing a key role in cementing the Nord side in Ligue 1 with a 13 goal season in which he was France’s second top scorer, behind PSG’s Pauleta.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of this term, from a personal viewpoint, was a 5-2 success over Nantes in a crucial relegation battle. Savidan struck  four times past international goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, before having the nerve to ask the custodian to swap shirts – a request he had been coerced into by a kid he knew.

The following year, VA again faced a relegation scrap, but a further 13 Savidan goals kept them sufficiently away from danger.

A Multi-Million Euro Man

Only five years after seeing his dreams to make it as a professional look like slipping away, Savidan earned a multi-million Euro move to Caen - the exact figure of the transfer is not known, although it’s widely believed to have been between €5 million and €6m.

The unbelievable ascent of Savidan’s career had surely reached its peak… But no! His form kept on getting better and better and he found the net 14 times in what would prove to be his last season as a professional.

What allowed the forward to keep improving was his intelligent style of play. A highly perceptive player, both on and off the ball, Savidan had learned the art of when to play a pass or just where to run to get into the correct position when he was not in possession. In addition, his physical strength and impressive leap, for one of relatively diminutive stature, gave him a predatory air, which complimented his lethal finishing ability. And, with an eye for the spectacular, he was always a fans’ favourite. But his over-riding strength was his sheer determination to improve, and for his team to win.

His peak would arrive in autumn 2008, when he topped the league’s scoring charts and would make a sparkling cameo appearance for France against Uruguay in a scoreless game that, aside from his verve-packed second period showing, was entirely forgettable. This would prove to be his only showing for les Bleus, despite consistently finding himself in the top two or three scorers in France on an annual basis since his ascent to Le Championnat.

Talk of a move to one of the ‘Olympians’ in Lyon or Marseille was rife in the winter transfer period of 2009, indicating just how prized an asset this roughed out diamond had become. Caen rejected the approaches, mindful of their perilous league position, which would surely have been ten times worse had it not been for their talismanic forward.

Unjust Conclusion

Regarded as one of Le Championnat’s most complete forwards, Savidan owed it to himself to move away from the relegated Malherbes this summer and there were no shortage of suitors, including Toulouse and Saint-Etienne. But Monaco would be the side he would select.

Only, a deal was never done.

Just as Lilian Thuram was on the verge of signing for PSG last season, only for a shock press conference to announce his retirement due to a heart defect, Savidan – a warrior and an inspiration on the field – would be forced to do likewise, following one of France’s greats into a premature retirement.

Thuram, though, at least had the chance to accomplish all he could in his career. A World Cup and European Championship winner at international level, combined with a glittering club record, make Thuram’s career more-or-less complete.

Savidan, despite his relatively advanced years for a footballer, was never given the chance to reach his full potential. His life as a professional has been cut cruelly short while he was still in the ascendancy, still discovering new skills and still improving on a month-by-month basis. Still searching for his first major honour, even.

He dreamed of mingling with Europe’s elite in the Champions League, but he will never get that chance. And, although he is a largely unknown name outside his home country, he was deserving of that opportunity, not only for the skill and grace with which he played the game, but also because of the sheer professionalism, determination and spirit he possessed, never giving in when his career looked over.

It’s a twist of macabre irony that a player who played the game with such heart, doesn’t possess a sufficiently strong physical organ to continue his playing career. Ligue 1 will miss Steve Savidan, and he is likely to miss Ligue 1.

In order to complete this eulogy to one of Europe’s most unheralded players, the words of former coach Leclerq are fitting.

“I have seen only three centre-forwards better than him: Josip Skoblar, Salif Keita and Jean-Pierre Papin,” he enthused. Illustrious company for a consummate and criminally under-rated professional.

Robin Bairner, Goal.com