Place of birth Bastia, France Years Team Height 1.83 m Position Defender | Playing position Team Apps Weight 80 kg | |
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Full name François Joseph Modesto Date of birth (1978-08-19) 19 August 1978 (age 38) Number 20 (SC Bastia / Defender), 3 (Olympiacos F.C. / Defender), 4 (AS Monaco FC / Defender) Similar Yannick Cahuzac, Julian Palmieri, Sébastien Squillaci, Ariel Ibagaza | ||
François Joseph Modesto (born 19 August 1978) is a French retired footballer. He operated as a right back or central defender, and also as a defensive midfielder.
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His 19-year professional career was closely associated with Bastia, where he started and finished playing. He amassed Ligue 1 totals of 272 games and ten goals during 11 seasons, also having a lengthy spell at Monaco; additionally, he spent five years in Italy with Cagliari and three in Greece with Olympiacos.
Football career
Born in Bastia, Modesto started his career with hometown's SC Bastia. On 20 February 1998 he made his first-team – and Ligue 1 – debut, in a 2–0 home win against AS Monaco FC, and was sparingly played by the Corsicans over the course of two seasons.
Aged 21, Modesto signed with another island club, Cagliari Calcio in Italy. He appeared in 22 Serie A games in his first year, suffering relegation; in the 2003–04 campaign he played in a career-high 43 matches to help the Sardinia side return to the top level, as runner-up.
Late into the 2004 summer, after a brief loan spell with Modena FC, Modesto was sold by Cagliari to Monaco. In his second season he appeared in 29 league games (two goals) as his team finished in tenth position, adding seven matches in the campaign's UEFA Cup, which ended in round-of-32 against FC Basel, 1–2 on aggregate.
On 30 June 2010, Olympiacos F.C. signed Modesto for two years, with the Greek club paying him an annual salary of €550.000. During his first year, as the Piraeus team won the national championship, he was mainly used by coach Ernesto Valverde as a defensive midfielder, scoring twice in 24 appearances.
On 19 October 2011, Modesto netted his first goal in the UEFA Champions League, in a 3–1 group stage home win against Borussia Dortmund. He added another in the same competition against Arsenal (same venue and result) as Olympiacos finished third in its group, being relegated to the Europa League.
In the summer of 2013, aged nearly 35, Modesto left Olympiacos and signed a one-year contract with first club Bastia. On 10 January 2015 he contributed with one goal as his team – who ranked 19th at the time of the match – beat Paris Saint Germain F.C. 4–2 at home, heading home after a 45th minute corner kick for the 2–2.