As careers in football go, Jean-Alain Boumsong’s was a pretty decent one.
Retiring in 2013 after a stint with Panathinaikos in Greece, the centre-back can boast having played for Rangers, Newcastle United and Lyon, as well as Juventus in Italy.
His biggest move was perhaps the one taking him from Ibrox to St James’ Park, where he only stayed for a year before being sold for a considerable loss to the Serie A champions.
What was meant to be his big moment in the Premier League didn’t go as planned, and his form that year nearly cost him everything he was playing for, which was a regular spot in the France national team.
Speaking to Foot Mercato in France, the former Newcastle defender was asked what the most difficult moment of his career was, and he picked out two, the second being when Raymond Domenech didn’t call him up for the 2010 World Cup.
The first: “My last few months at Newcastle were terrible. I wasn’t having a good season. I was a starter and vice captain, and I ended up being a sub and nearly not making the 2006 World Cup squad. It really was a difficult period for me. I remember a Newcastle-Liverpool that I started.
“At one point, there’s a long ball that I completely missed and the player goes towards goal. I try and beat him, I catch him and there’s penalty and red card. After a game like that, you’re devastated. It was already going badly, but the manager kept believing in me. There, he had no choice but to drop me”.
You can see the moment in this video, and he’s right, it isn’t pretty as he hugs Peter Crouch to the ground before getting sent off.
It seems he doesn’t remember his spell at Newcastle all that fondly, but he still managed to make 58 appearances in all competitions for the club during his year and a half on Tyneside.
