Laure Lepailleur


Laure Maud Yvette Lepailleur is a French football player who currently plays for French club Paris Saint-Germain of the Division 1 Féminine. Lepailleur primarily plays as a midfielder, but can also play in the defending position. She is a member of the France women's national football team making her first major tournament appearance with her nation at UEFA Women's Euro 2009.

Career

Lepailleur began her career playing for her hometown club Sporting Club de Bernay. After a stint in the youth system, she joined the women's section of Évreux AC. She was later selected to attend CNFE Clairefontaine, the women's section of the prestigious Clairefontaine academy. She played one season with the academy making eight appearances scoring no goals. After leaving the academy, she joined D1 Féminine mainstay Montpellier. In her two seasons at the club, Lepailleur was a regular in the starting eleven. She helped the club win the 2004–05 D1 Féminine title and the 2005–06 Challenge de France. Following the Challenge de France success, Lepailleur moved to up-and-coming club Olympique Lyonnais and, despite not receiving consistent playing time, helped the club win back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008. Her decreasing playing time, including a short stint playing for the Lyon reserve team in the third division, saw the international moved to impending rivals Paris Saint-Germain. In her first season with the Parisians, she only appeared in 11 matches scoring one goal. For the 2008–09 season, Lepailleur was joined by fellow internationals Camille Abily, Sonia Bompastor, and Élise Bussaglia. The additions helped Paris Saint-Germain reach as high as 1st position with Lepailleur appearing in six of the first seven league matches the team contested.

International career

Lepailleur had previously starred with the women's under-19 team helping France win the 2003 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, held in Germany. On 13 March 2005, she earned her first cap with the women's national team in a match against Finland. On 10 August 2009, she was named to the squad to participate in UEFA Women's Euro 2009, due to an injury to national team regular Sandrine Dusang. Lepailleur had not appeared in any matches during the qualification process and only made one substitute appearance in the tournament as France crashed out in the quarterfinals losing 5–4 on penalties to the Netherlands.