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Johan Cédric Micoud (born 24 July 1973) is a French former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.
He was considered a skilled midfielder and a dead-ball expert. During a 16-year career he played professionally in France, Italy and Germany.
Micoud gained 17 caps for France, and represented the nation at Euro 2000 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup, winning the former tournament.
He was a youth product of local AS Cannes' youth system, becoming the side's playmaker after Zinedine Zidane's departure to Girondins de Bordeaux. He helped the club to promotion from the second division in 1993 and qualification to the UEFA Cup in the following season.
The following season he helped the club to the UEFA Champions League's second group stage. He also reached two Coupe de la Ligue finals with Bordeaux, losing to RC Strasbourg in 1997 and Paris Saint-Germain in 1998.
Micoud was one of the key players in Bremen's surprise double win in 2004, and scored in the decisive game against Bayern Munich where Bremen secured the Bundesliga title. Micoud also scored in every round of the 2003–04 DFB-Pokal, except the final. He ended the season with ten goals and eight assists.
After the season, Micoud signed a new contract with Bremen until 2007, and was described by the club's sporting director Klaus Allofs as 'the best midfielder in the Bundesliga'. It had previously been speculated that Micoud could leave, as he criticised the club for allowing two other key players in Aílton and Mladen Krstajić to join Schalke. The following season saw Bremen finish third in the league.
In his final season with Bremen, Micoud scored five times in the Champions League, including winners against Udinese Calcio in the group stage and Juventus FC in the knockouts. He also scored eight goals and managed fourteen assists in the Bundesliga as Bremen finished runners-up.
Micoud left Bremen to return to former club Bordeaux in 2006, with Klaus Allofs stating that they would not have agreed to sell Micoud to any other club. A friendly match in Bremen's Weserstadion between the two teams was also organised, where Micoud scored the only goal for Bordeaux and was given a standing ovation by the Bremen fans.
Courtesy of his stellar championship performances with Bordeaux, he made his debut on 17 August 1999 in a Exhibition game with Northern Ireland, and was subsequently picked for the squad which won UEFA Euro 2000. Micoud only played in one of the six matches of the tournament, in the group match against the Netherlands, effectively a dead rubber given that both nations had already qualified both the group. He assisted Christophe Dugarry's opening goal from a corner, although France eventually lost 3-2.
He was also selected for the FIFA World Cup campaign of 2002, and replaced the injured Zidane for the second game, a 0-0 draw with Uruguay.
Regardless of his consistently high level of performance at club level, Micoud found himself subsequently marginalised by the following national bosses. After the World Cup, he was not picked for France again for two years, before Jacques Santini selected him for a friendly against Holland in March 2004, recognising Micoud's form with Bremen.
Santini included Micoud in his preliminary squad for Euro 2004 but he did not make the final squad. Under Raymond Domenech Micoud did win a single call up for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, and Micoud publicly criticised Domenech for ignoring his Bremen performances, suggesting that Domenech's refusal to pick him may be influenced by Micoud's star sign.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | ||||
| AS Cannes | 1992–93 | Division 2 | 2 | |
| 1993–94 | Division 1 | 3 | ||
| 1994–95 | Division 1 | 8 | ||
| 1995–96 | Division 1 | 7 | ||
| Bordeaux | 1996–97 | Division 1 | 9 | |
| 1997–98 | Division 1 | 7 | ||
| 1998–99 | Division 1 | 12 | ||
| 1999–2000 | Division 1 | 9 | ||
| Parma AC | 2000–01 | Serie A | 7 | |
| 2001–02 | Serie A | 6 | ||
| Werder Bremen | 2002–03 | Bundesliga | 7 | |
| 2003–04 | Bundesliga | 15 | ||
| 2004–05 | Bundesliga | 11 | ||
| 2005–06 | Bundesliga | 14 | ||
| Bordeaux | 2006–07 | Ligue 1 | 5 | |
| 2007–08 | Ligue 1 | 8 | ||
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year | |
| France | 0 |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Johan Micoud |
| Friendly |
Parma
Werder Bremen
France
Individual
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