Macarthur FC have signed former Monaco and Marseille striker Valere Germain on a two-year contract, with the Ligue 1 champion bringing serious pedigree and experience to the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Germain makes the move to Australia Cup champions Macarthur from Montpellier for his first adventure outside of France, where he amassed 13 years of experience across Monaco, Nice and Marseille.
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The 33-year-old emerged from Monaco’s youth team in 2010 and was an integral part of their triumphant 2016-17 Ligue 1 season alongside Kylian Mbappe, Radamel Falcao, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Joao Moutinho, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Thomas Lemar.
Germain scored 17 goals that season – only behind Falcao (30) and Mbappe (26) as Monaco eliminated Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City en route to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals before falling to Juventus.
“It’s my first experience playing in another country so I am very happy and excited to be here in Australia,” Germain said.
“I want to show my qualities and help the team. I have had 13 years playing in the top division in France and that experience will help the club and the players.
“I am a striker who can score, who can assist but I like to defend and help the team. I want to meet the fans soon and I want to give them a great season in the A-League, the Australia Cup and the AFC Cup.”
During his time with Monaco which also involved a loan stint at Nice, Germain won Ligue 2 and scored 53 goals across 202 games in all competitions.
In 2017-18, he made the move to Ligue 1 rivals Marseille and was a UEFA Europa League runner-up in his maiden season after falling to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid.
Germain found the back of the net 31 times in 158 games as he teamed up with the likes of Patrice Evra, Dimitri Payet and new Napoli boss Rudi Garcia.
Over the past two seasons, he has played for Montpellier and came up against PSG trio Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mbappe.
He scored six league goals across 2021-22 and 2022-23.
“Valere is an attacking player that has played in one of Europe’s top leagues for over 13 years,” said Macarthur head coach Mile Sterjovski.
“He’ll bring quality and experience into our team and lead by example. I am really excited about the prospect of how he will combine with our other attacking players, such as captain Ulises Davila.”
Germain joins, Daniel De Silva, Clayton Lewis (Wellington Phoenix), Matthew Jurman (Newcastle Jets), Raphael Borges Rodrigues (Melbourne City), and Kristian Popovic (NK Međimurje) in signing for the club in the off-season.
Craig Noone, Jason Romero (APIA Leichhardt), Bachana Arabuli, Aleksandar Susnjar, Nick Suman, Al Hassan Toure, Moudi Najjar, and Daniel Arzani (Melbourne Victory) have all departed Macarthur since the end of the 2022-23 campaign which saw the Bulls finish bottom.
