As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read, feel free to read last year's threads, via this link or the one at the bottom of the page, but this post and today's thread on X is on Julien Faubert.
Born in Le Havre in 1983, Faubert grew up as an only child in a single-parent household where it was only him and his mother, Elisabeth. Like many kids in Le Havre, Faubert loved playing football, turning out for a local youth team, SC de Frileuse. With a rich footballing heritage in Le Havre, with the team’s academy producing stars such as Riyad Mahrez & a player we all might know called Dimitri Payet, Faubert could’ve easily been signed by his hometown club. Instead, in 1998 at the age of 15, he signed with AS Cannes.
Like Le Havre, Cannes also have a famed academy, known for producing the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira & Gael Clichy, who despite being 2 years younger than Faubert, ended up in the same youth team as him. Starting as a right back, Faubert’s crossing ability got him moved further up the field to be used as a right winger in a front three or as a right midfielder in a four. It was in this position that Faubert broke into the Cannes team at the beginning of the 2002/03 season. Faubert quickly became a key part of the Cannes team as well as the France U21 team between 2002-04 making 45 appearances for his club and 17 appearances for his country, despite Cannes being a third division side at the time, which led to Bordeaux signing Faubert in 2004.
Signing for Bordeaux at the age of 21, Faubert flourished in his 3 years with the club, scoring 12 goals in 115 games as well as regularly playing in Ligue 1 and Europe, with Faubert being a key part of the team that qualified for the champions league in 2006. After such a successful season, Faubert’s career got better when he was capped by France in August 2006. Becoming the 1st player to wear the number 10 shirt after fellow Cannes graduate Zinedine Zidane’s retirement, Faubert would score a last-minute winner to help France win 2-1. Sadly, this was Faubert’s first and only game for France, although as this post later reveals, this was not the end of his international career.
After another good season with Bordeaux, which saw them qualify for the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League), Faubert was signed by West Ham in July 2007 for 6 million pounds & in true West Ham fashion, picked up a serious injury in his second game that ruled him out for 6 months. In these 6 months, Faubert took the time to learn English, admitting in 2020 that he learnt English from watching a certain cartoon show about a pig with his son: “My favourite show was Peppa Pig because it’s so funny & I’d always sing along to the theme song.”
Faubert would finally make his debut for the club in January 2008, coming on as a sub against Fulham, however, repeated injuries saw Faubert only make 8 appearances in his debut season. However, this didn’t bother a certain Spanish club who came looking for Faubert a year later…
In what is still regarded as one of the most bizarre transfers of all time, Faubert joined Real Madrid in January 2009 (yes, you read that right) on loan from West Ham (and no, this wasn’t one of my football manager saves either) with the option to sign permanently. However, Faubert did not impress at all when in Madrid, with the highlights of his stay being to confuse Alfredo Di Stefano (see below) and to fall asleep on the bench during a game against Villarreal. Although, Faubert insists he only closed his eyes because he was bored. Of course that's why Julien...
Yet, that nap in Madrid seems to have done the trick as Faubert came back to West Ham revitalised and a completely new player (or he just thought he was still dreaming & playing for Real Madrid), playing 33 times & scoring a single goal. Sadly, whilst his season was good on the pitch, he personally struggled off it as Faubert lost his mother Elisabeth to a brain tumour in January 2010. Faubert credits his wife Pamela & Islam, the faith he converted to upon marrying her in seeing him through such a difficult time.
Despite a poor 2010/11 season that saw Faubert leave the stadium after not being picked for one game and West Ham being relegated, Faubert stayed at the club one final season and see out the final year of his contract to help the club get promoted back to the Premier League. Reverting to his original position of right-back, Faubert would be the first choice in that position all season, with his best performance coming in the club’s biggest game of that season against fierce rivals Millwall. Faubert left the club at the end of the season after failing to agree a new contract.
In his 5 years with the Hammers, Faubert made 121 appearances for the club, scoring twice and fondly remembers his time at the club and the love the supporters gave him when his mum died, which he described as “special”.
After leaving West Ham, Faubert would take a brief detour to Turkey with Elazığspor, before returning to Bordeaux in January 2013, where he made an additional 60 appearances to the 115 he made between 2004-07, taking his total to 175 games for the French club across his 2 spells.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Faubert’s solitary cap for France wasn’t the end of his international career. As Faubert was from Martiniquan descent, he took up the offer to play for their national team, scoring 5 goals in 10 games between 2014-17.
After leaving Bordeaux again in 2015, Faubert played for a few clubs across the world as his career wound down playing in Scotland with Kilmarnock, Finland with Inter Turku, Indonesia with Borneo before retiring back in France at 36 with Fréjus Saint-Raphaël.
Since retiring, Faubert has been quietly working on getting his coaching badges and hopes one day to become a manager. So maybe one day, we’ll see Julien Faubert on the touchline at the London stadium. Whether he’s managing West Ham or not is another question entirely.
Thanks for reading today’s thread.
My sources today were:
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