Bacary Sagna French Footballer Born 1983 in Sens

Bacary Sagna is a French former professional footballer who played as a right-back, and later worked as a coach. He was born on 14 February 1983 in Sens. He is best known for seven seasons at Arsenal, followed by three at Manchester City, and he represented France at two World Cups and at the 2016 European Championship.

Early life

Sagna was born in Sens, France. He began his football at FC Sens and played in their youth team until 1998, when he moved to the youth setup of AJ Auxerre. He progressed through the reserve side, AJ Auxerre II, from 2002 and reached the first team in 2004.

Career

At Auxerre Sagna made 87 Ligue 1 appearances and was part of the squad that won the Coupe de France in 2004-05. He played in the UEFA Cup in each of his three seasons with the first team, appearing 17 times in the competition. In 2006-07 he was named in the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year and won the club's Player of the Season award. Supporters gave him the nickname "Mr. Reliable".

On 12 July 2007 he joined Arsenal, taking the number 3 shirt, and he made his first start for the club in a friendly a week later. His first Premier League goal, a header from a corner, came against Chelsea on 23 March 2008, and he was named in the PFA Team of the Year at the end of that season. He signed a new contract in 2008 that ran to 2014. Over the following years he was the club's regular right-back, and occasionally filled in as a centre-back. He scored his first goal at the Emirates Stadium against Celtic in 2010, and he was again chosen for the PFA Team of the Year in 2010-11. In February 2012 he scored a header in the 5-2 North London derby win over Tottenham Hotspur after Arsenal had trailed 2-0. On 17 May 2014 he started the FA Cup final, which Arsenal won 3-2 against Hull City; it was his first trophy with the club.

Sagna chose not to extend his Arsenal contract, and on 13 June 2014 it was announced that he would join Manchester City on a three-year deal. At City he again wore the number 3 and won the Football League Cup in 2015-16. He left when his contract ended in June 2017.

In February 2018 he signed for the Serie A club Benevento Calcio, and his only goal for them was a late header in a 3-3 draw with Udinese on 29 April. In August 2018 he joined Montreal Impact, now known as CF Montréal, in Major League Soccer, and a one-year contract kept him there for 2019. The club won the Canadian Championship in 2019.

On 4 January 2025 Sagna was announced as head coach of Banaat FC. In 2026 he appeared in the film The Bus: A French Football Mutiny.

Recognition

Sagna's team honours include the Coupe de France with Auxerre, the FA Cup with Arsenal, the League Cup with Manchester City and the Canadian Championship with Montreal. Arsenal also finished as runners-up in the League Cup in 2010-11 during his time there. Individually he was selected for the PFA Team of the Year in both 2007-08 and 2010-11 and for the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year in 2006-07. His former manager at Arsenal, Arsène Wenger, once called him the best right-back in the Premier League.

Public roles

Sagna played for France's under-21 team and took part in the 2006 European Under-21 Championship. He has said that he once hoped to play for Senegal at the age of 17, but that national team did not answer him, and he chose France when both called him up. He earned his first senior cap on 22 August 2007 in a 1-0 friendly win in Slovakia, as a substitute for François Clerc, and made his competitive debut in October 2007 in a 6-0 win in the Faroe Islands. He was a regular during qualification for the 2010 World Cup and played at the tournament in South Africa, then at the 2014 World Cup, and he was a member of the squad at Euro 2016, staged in France. He played for France until 2016.

On 31 March 2011 he became an ambassador for Grassroot Soccer, an international non-profit organisation that uses football to educate communities about preventing the spread of HIV.

Personal life

Sagna married Ludivine Kadri, a French-Algerian model, in 2010. He is known by the nickname "Bac" among most of his team-mates, and his cousin Ibrahima Sonko is also a professional footballer.