Matthew Le Tissier - Club Career

Club Career

Le Tissier was born in Guernsey, and played youth football on the island with Vale Recreation between the ages of ten and seventeen. On leaving school in 1985, he had a trial at Oxford United, but nothing came of it.

Signing for Southampton the following year, Le Tissier made his club debut in a 4–3 defeat at Norwich City in the Football League First Division, and by the end of that season had scored six goals in 24 games. He made 19 first team appearances in 1987–88, failing to score, but in 1988–89 scored nine times in 28 league games. He was voted PFA Young Player of the Year for the 1989–90 season, in which he was one of the league's top goalscorers with 20 goals.

Le Tissier's top scoring season was 1994–95, when he scored 30 goals. The following season he won the Match of the Day Goal of the Season award for his drifting 40-yard lob against Blackburn Rovers, scoring against his long term friend, and former Southampton keeper, Tim Flowers.

On 2 April 2000, Le Tissier scored a last minute penalty for Southampton in a 2–1 defeat to Sunderland. This brought his tally of Premiership goals to 100, making him only the sixth player and first midfielder to reach this milestone.

He scored the last goal in the final competitive match played at The Dell on 19 May 2001, against Arsenal. This turned out to be his last goal for Southampton. He played several games for the club during 2001–02, the first season at the new St Mary's Stadium, in an eventual 11th-place finish. His final competitive appearance for the Saints came against West Ham on 30 January 2002. He announced on 29 March 2002 that he would retire from playing at the season's end after limping off with a recurrence of a calf strain during a reserve team game against Charlton.

His final match, a testimonial against an England XI in May 2002, ended in a 9–9 draw, with Le Tissier playing 45 minutes for each side, while his 10-year old son Mitchell came on as a substitute in the second half, scoring four times.

After leaving Southampton, he had a brief spell with non-league side Eastleigh, where he played alongside his former Southampton teammate David Hughes.

Throughout his career, Le Tissier had a fearsome reputation for scoring from the spot, converting 47 of the 48 penalties that he took for Southampton. His sole failure to convert came on 24 March 1993 in a match against Nottingham Forest, his spot kick being saved by Forest keeper Mark Crossley, the feat being so unique that Crossley describes it as the save of which he is most proud.

Le Tissier made a cameo appearance for Southampton in Claus Lundekvam's testimonial against Celtic, on 18 July 2008. Lundekvam had previously played with him at Southampton from 1996 to 2002.

In 2010, Spanish superstar Xavi revealed that Le Tissier had been one of his childhood inspirations, claiming that: "His talent was simply out of the norm. He could simply dribble past seven or eight players but without speed - he just walked past them. For me he was sensational".