Ludovic Obraniak

Ludovic Joseph Obraniak (Polish pronunciation: [luˈdɔvʲik ɔˈbraɲak]; born 10 November 1984) is a Polish former footballer of French descent. He primarily played as an attacking midfielder. He represented the Poland national team.

Ludovic Obraniak
Obraniak playing for Maccabi Haifa in 2016
Personal information
Full name Ludovic Joseph Obraniak
Date of birth (1984-11-10) 10 November 1984
Place of birth Longeville-lès-Metz, France
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position(s) Attacking midfielder
Youth career
1991–1996 Union Lorraine de Plantieres
1997–2002 Metz
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2007 Metz 99 (5)
2007–2012 Lille 152 (19)
2012–2014 Bordeaux 68 (14)
2014–2015 Werder Bremen 12 (1)
2014–2015 → Çaykur Rizespor (loan) 16 (2)
2015–2016 Maccabi Haifa 26 (3)
2016–2018 AJ Auxerre 36 (0)
National team
2004 France U-21 1 (0)
2009–2014 Poland 34 (5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:04, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Football career

FC Metz

Obraniak began his football career with his local club FC Metz. Due to his consistent play in the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the senior side by then-manager Jean Fernandez making his debut during the 2003–04 season in a 0–2 loss to Bordeaux coming on as a late-match substitute wearing the number 13 shirt.[1] Over the next two years, Metz showed their inconsistent play finishing 16th in 2004–05 and finishing dead bottom of the table in 2005–06, thus being relegated. Obraniak was the primary bright spot in the squad appearing in 61 matches and scoring 3 goals over those years.

With Metz in Ligue 2, several Ligue 1 clubs drew their interest over to Obraniak. Despite this, he still played half the season in Ligue 2 with Metz appearing in 20 matches and scoring 2 goals. The following winter would see his departure. After weeks of silent negotiating, Metz finally came to an agreement on 23 January 2007 with the Nord-Pas de Calais-based side Lille OSC. Metz received €1.2 million, as well as the Swiss striker Daniel Gygax.[2]

Lille OSC

Obraniak agreed to a four-year contract keeping him with the club until 2010. He made his debut with Lille four days later coming on substitute in a match against Bordeaux. He played in every remaining match that season, making on and off starts and substitute appearances. With Lille playing in the UEFA Champions League that season, he appeared in both legs of their knockout stage match against Manchester United. The following season, Obraniak had a solid season appearing in 35 matches and scoring 2 goals, though Lille finished out of Europe in the league standings. For the 2008–09 season, he got off to a fast start scoring 7 goals in only 16 appearances contributing to Lille's 5th-place position heading into the winter break. In later seasons, he was not a regular starter and decided to leave the club.

Bordeaux

On 12 January 2012, Obraniak signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Ligue 1 outfit Bordeaux.[3] In February, he scored two goals in a 5–4 away win against his former club Lille, including the winning goal in injury time.[4]

Werder Bremen

In January 2014, Obraniak left France for the first time of his career and moved to German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen. He signed for two and a half years until summer 2016 and the transfer fee was believed to be €2 million. Prior to his decision for Werder, he consulted fellow Frenchman Johan Micoud who have had a great spell in Bremen in the 2000s.[5] However, his time in Bremen didn't become a success. After his signing he was a regular for eight matches but then he apparently lost favor with head coach Robin Dutt.[6] Following Dutt's sacking in October 2014 he raised vainly hopes of improving his situation, also being left out of the squad in almost official matches under new coach Viktor Skrypnyk.

Çaykur Rizespor

In January 2015, he was loaned to Turkish Super Lig club Çaykur Rizespor for the remainder of the season. Bremen granted them also a buy-out option for summer 2015.[7] He made his league debut against Galatasaray on 25 January 2015.[8]

Maccabi Haifa

On 27 August 2015, he signed for Israeli Premier League giants Maccabi Haifa, After passing a medical test, he signed a 2-year contract worth €400,000 per year. On 12 September, Obraniak made his debut against Bnei Sakhnin FC.[9]

On 24 May 2016, he scored the winning goal in the 2015–16 Israel State Cup final, against Maccabi Tel Aviv. On 17 August 2016, Obraniak was released from Maccabi Haifa after one year.

Retirement

On October 4, 2018 he announced his retirement from football.

International career

Obraniak made an appearance for the France under-21 squad; however, since it was not a match for points FIFA did not consider him permanently capped. This was later confirmed by FIFA's decision to remove the age limit on nationality switches of players who had only been capped at youth level.[10]

Due to having Polish roots through his grandfather, Zygmunt Obraniak who was from Pobiedziska in Poznań County,[11] the player became the subject of interest from the Poland national football team and applied for citizenship of the country.[12] Since his grandfather had never renounced Polish citizenship, according to Polish laws Obraniak's citizenship did not need to be granted by the Polish government but simply verified by the Masovian voivode. Obraniak was confirmed as a Polish citizen on 5 June 2009.[13]

On 23 July 2009, he was officially called up to the Poland team by coach Leo Beenhakker for the squad's friendly against Greece,[14] where Obraniak scored the second goal in the match making the final score a 2–0 victory for Poland.

He played in all 3 games for Poland at Euro 2012.

Personal life

Obraniak's daughter was born on 1 June 2011.[15]

Obraniak is fluent in French and English. Despite representing Poland on an international level he doesn't speak Polish fluently.

Career statistics
As of 5 August 2018[16]

Club
Club Season League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Division AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Europe Total
Metz2002–03Ligue 2902020–130
2003–04Ligue 1901010–110
2004–053022010–332
2005–063112010–341
2006–07Ligue 22023010–242
Total 99510060001155
Lille2006–07Ligue 117010–20200
2007–083523010–392
2008–093393010–379
2009–102941020112436
2010–11262612091434
2011–12122–2[17]050192
Total 152191418027320123
Bordeaux2011–12Ligue 117420––194
2012–1330640–81427
2013–14214103[18]020274
Total 681470301018815
Germany League DFB Pokal DFL-Ligapokal Europe Total
Werder Bremen2013–14Bundesliga101–––101
2014–152010––30
Total 121100000131
Turkey League Turkish Cup Other Europe Total
Çaykur Rizespor (loan)2014–15Süper Lig16220––182
Israel League Israeli Cup Other Europe Total
Maccabi Haifa2015–16Israeli Premier League26340–20323
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Europe Total
Auxerre2016–17Ligue 220050––250
2017–181603010–200
Total 360801000450
Career total 4094446118039451249

International goals
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1. 12 August 2009 Bydgoszcz, Poland  Greece
2–0
[19]
2–0
Friendly
2. 12 October 2010 Montreal, Canada  Ecuador
2–1
2–2
3. 17 November 2010 Poznań, Poland  Ivory Coast
2–1
3–1
4. 2 June 2012 Warsaw, Poland  Andorra
1–0
4–0
5. 14 November 2012 Gdańsk, Poland  Uruguay
1–2
1–3

Honours

Club

Lille

Bordeaux

Maccabi Haifa

Individual
  • Coupe de France Final Man of the Match: 2011

References
  1. "Bordeaux v. Metz Match Report". Lfp.fr. Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  2. Laurent Picard. "Lille land Metz man". Sky Sports. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  3. "Ludovic Obraniak joins Bordeaux from Lille". Yahoo!. Associated Press. 12 January 2012. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  4. "Obraniak breaks old hearts in nine-goal epic". PA. FIFA.com. 12 February 2012. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012.
  5. "Werder holt Obraniak aus Bordeaux" [Werder signs Obraniak from Bordeaux] (in German). T-Online. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  6. "Dutt mochte mich nicht" [Dutt didn't like me] (in German). Bild. 31 October 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  7. "Obraniak transfers to Caykur Rizespor". SV Werder Bremen. 15 January 2015. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  8. "Galatasaray: 2 - Çaykur Rizespor: 0 (İlk Yarı)". Haberler. 25 January 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  9. "Debuts for Obraniak and Kriaf" (in Hebrew). ONE. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  10. "FIFA nie przeszkodzi już Obraniakowi w grze dla Polski". Eurosport (in Polish). 4 June 2009. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  11. Nawrot, Radosław (10 August 2009). "Tu mieszkał dziadek Ludovica Obraniaka" [Ludovic Obraniak's grandfather lived here]. sport.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  12. "Ludovic Obraniak wystąpił o nadanie polskiego obywatelstwa" [Ludovic Obraniak obtained Polish citizenship]. Sport.pl. 24 February 2009. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  13. "Ludovic Obraniak obywatelem Polski" [Ludovic Obraniak is a Polish citizen]. TVS (in Polish). 5 June 2009. Archived from the original on 11 July 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  14. "Beenhakker announces squad for Greece friendly". Polskie Radio. 23 July 2009. Archived from the original on 30 July 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2013.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  15. "New father Obraniak will make France game". Agence France-Presse. FIFA. 3 June 2011. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  16. "L. Obraniak". Soccerway. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  17. Includes 2011 Trophée des Champions
  18. Includes 2013 Trophée des Champions
  19. Andrzej Gowarzewski: Biało-Czerwoni. Dzieje reprezentacji Polski (6) 2008-2015. Katowice: Wydawnictwo GiA, 2016, p. 41. ISBN 978-83-88232-48-0.
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