Steve Mandanda Bio, Height, Weight, Siblings, Family

Quick Facts

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Profession	Athletes

Decorated twice (2008 and 2011) as Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year, Steve Mandanda is a professional footballer who currently plays for French football club Marseille and also for the French National Football Team.

Mandanda has been a member of the French National Team since 2008 and has represented the country in five international tournaments which include two FIFA world cups and three UEFA European Championships. His world cup debut was at the 2010 FIFA World Cup which held in South Africa while his UEFA Euro debut was in 2008.

Brief Bio

Steve Mandanda was born in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, on the 28th day of March 1985 as Steve Mandanda Mpidi. He relocated to France as a teenager to pursue a career in football. There is no information about his educational qualifications.

His Family, Siblings

Steve is the first of four children born to his parents – Franck and Brigitte Mandanda. His three younger brothers, Parfait Mandanda, Over Mandanda, and Riffi Mandanda are all professional footballers who play as goalkeepers just like him.

Parfait keeps for Belgian football club Charleroi and for the Congo national football team. Riffi is the goalkeeper of AC Ajaccio (a French football Club) and for the French Under – 16 national football team. His youngest brother Over is in the junior ranks of French football club, US Lusitanos Saint-Maur.

Steve Mandanda, who has been nicknamed Frenchie” by relatives and friends for choosing to play for the French national football team over the Congo national team lives in Marseille with his family and enjoys spending in his off periods with them.

League Career

After relocating to France, Steve began his career with Le Havre, a French football club based in Le Havre and made his first appearance for the club in August 2005. He played a total of 30 League matches for the club in the 2005/2006 season and didn’t concede any goal until his fourth match in the season.

He played 37 league matches the following season (2006/2007) and his outstanding performances soon caught the attention of other clubs which include English club Aston Villa, which he had an unsuccessful preseason with before settling down with French football club Marseille in the summer of 2007.

Mandanda began his career at Marseille as an understudy to first-choice keeper Cédric Carrasso, who had to be away for six months due to a knee injury. This gave room for Steve to function as the club’s main keeper in the French professional League, Ligue 1, Champions League and UEFA Cup matches. Having put up an impressive performance, he signed a four-year permanent contract with Marseille in March 2008.

By the expiration of his four years contract, he was named Marseille’s Player of the Season for the second time. He had previously won the award in the previous season.

In 2016, Premier League club Crystal Palace signed Steve Mandanda on a free transfer from Marseille, but he struggled all through the season making only nine appearances due to injuries, the following year (2017) Mandanda returned to Olympique de Marseille on a three-year contract.

International Career

Steve joined the French National Football Team in 2008 but before then he had played with the under-21 team winning a number of caps with them. Following his outstanding performances, he was named among the French squad to represent the country at the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

In 2007, the goalie took part in the French A-squad pre-selection for the first time. In February 2008, he played with the France national football B team in a friendly against his birth country Congo DR with his younger brotherParfait serving as the goalkeeper. He was, however, substituted in halftime.

Steve made his first full international appearance on 27 May 2008 in a Euro 2008 warm-up friendly, against Ecuador, which ended in a 2–0 victory. He came in as a substitute for Sébastien Frey and gave an amazing performance. After the match, he was nominated as the third-choice goalkeeper for Euro 2008, French squad.

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He subsequently qualified as France’s first-choice goalkeeper for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign but was replaced with Hugo Lloris in the summer of 2009 by coach Raymond Domenech, who preferred the Olympique Lyonnais goalkeeper over him. Mandanda was still named among the 2010 world cup squad but he never got a chance to appear in any of the team’s three matches in the competition.

He made the list to the 2014 FIFA World Cup squad but was replaced with Stéphane Ruffie, after sustaining an injury before the tournament officially started. Another opportunity came in 2018 as he was named among the 23 man squad to represent France at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, and this time, he did play in the tournament.