About Grégory Coupet
Grégory Coupet (French pronunciation: [ɡʁeɡɔʁi kupɛ]; born 31 December 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Coupet is most well known for his lengthy career at Lyon where he won seven Ligue 1 titles. He also played for Saint-Étienne, Atlético Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as the France national team. == Club career == Coupet was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire. He began his club career with hometown team Club Olympique Le Puy, before turning professional with Saint-Étienne in 1994. He made his Ligue 1 debut on 26 March 1994 in a 2–0 victory against Angers. After three seasons, he surprisingly moved to league rival Lyon (the two cities are only 80 kilometres apart, and are long-time local and national rivals) as a replacement for Pascal Olmeta in January 1997. His gamble paid off as Lyon have regularly dominated Le Championnat since 2002 and were also regular fixtures in the UEFA Champions League. Coupet performed a memorable double save against Barcelona during a 2001–02 UEFA Champions League match, when he first acrobatically headed an unintended lob by his team-mate Caçapa onto his own crossbar, and then immediately parried a close header by the arriving Barcelona striker Rivaldo. He openly wept during the group photo before France faced Turkey in a 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final match, which had taken place just hours after the shocking death of his close friend and former Lyon teammate Marc-Vivien Foé.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.