Former players: Darcheville retires

Having started his professional carreer at Stade Rennes, where he came from Guyana, Jean-Claude Darcheville announced his retirement in this Tuesday’s edition of L’Équipe .

The forward ended his career with half-season with Kavala, in Greece. « I was injured at adductors, he explains. I intended to come back in France for a new season, but I didn’t train during the holidays, and when I tried to play again, I still had troubles with my adductors. When the body says stop... »

When the body says stop, this is a professional career of 16 years that comes to an end. Launched in the top flight by Michel Le Milinaire at Stade Rennes in 1995, he never convinced under the red and black colours, playing around forty matches in three years (for eighteen started) and only scoring five goals.
Loaned to Nottingham Forest in 1998-1999, he finally came to light with Lorient. Under the coaching of Christian Gourcuff, « Darch » became one of the best scorers of second division and helped Lorient gain their first accession in division 1. In 2001-2002, which is probably his best season, he scored 19 goals in D1, gave Lorient a French Cup by scoring the only goal of the final against Bastia and also played the final of the French League Cup.

Transferred to Bordeaux the following season, while Lorient went down to L2, Jean-Claude Ducan-Darcheville (his real name) didn’t succeed as well, scoring 37 goals in five years, but winning the French League Cup in 2007. The same year, he left France for one season in Glasgow Rangers, before coming back in Valenciennes and then in Nantes in L2. He left for Greece just one year ago, and Kavala will remain as the final club of his professional career.
« Happy » with his career, according to L’Équipe, Darcheville will come back to France next month. He intends to stay « in the world of football » for his reconversion.