Football League World
·2 March 2023
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·2 March 2023
Having spent three years at Loftus Road, French defender Yoann Barbet decided to leave Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 2022 after both parties could not come to an agreement on a new contract.
Barbet had been in England for four years before his move to the Hoops, having joined their West London rivals Brentford in 2015 from Chamois Niortais in his home nation.
He wasn’t always a regular for his first two years at Griffin Park, but in his final two seasons he became more of a regular starter, whether that was at centre-back or left-back Barbet was always reliable.
Having turned down a new deal at the Bees though, Barbet headed to QPR and for the most part kept himself fit over his three-year period at the club – aside from one spell out on the sidelines in his debut campaign he was a regular under Mark Warburton, featuring 121 times in all competitions.
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Perhaps the writing was on the wall for Barbet at the R’s though when he was in and out of the starting 11 towards the end of the last season, and after rejecting the club’s fresh advances before his deal expired, it wouldn’t be long until we found out his next move.
Barbet returned home to France but it did take the entirety of the summer transfer window to sort himself out a contract as he penned a three-year deal with Bordeaux – the club he started his professional career at in their B-team.
Six-time winners of Ligue 1, including as recently as 2009, Bordeaux suffered from financial difficulties last year and were subsequently relegated to France’s second tier, but they are on the rebuild and decided to bring in the experience of Barbet to help.
He is playing a major part in their push back to the top flight and has captained the club throughout the 2022-23 season, racking up 17 league appearances and has even got on the scoresheet three times.
Barbet netted a brace against Dijon back in January in a 3-0 away victory for Bordeaux, with his other goal coming from the penalty spot a couple of weeks ago as his new side defeated Paris FC 2-1 – perhaps most disappointingly though he has only been a part of four league clean sheets in his outings.
Currently, Bordeaux sit second in the division, which is one of the two automatic promotion spots but they face a battle on their hands with Sochaux just a point behind them and Metz a further three.
Barbet appears to be enjoying himself back in his home nation and you’d expect him to perhaps stay there for the rest of his career, and his performances this season are showing that he could probably still cut it at Championship level – perhaps even in QPR’s starting 11 considering their poor form.