Lilian Laslandes

Laslandes was born in Pauillac, Gironde. He started his professional career at the rather late age of 20, starting at the club Saint-Seurin in which he scored 10 goals in his 33 appearances for the club. AJ Auxerre took notice of his talent and acquired him following the season. He went on to make 125 appearances (20 of them played at European level) for the club and scored 47 goals – of which two were scored in European cups.

On 5 January 2007, Laslandes signed for his former club Nice for an undisclosed fee. He was released in the summer of 2008. He then decided to become a handball player for Girondins de Bordeaux, and retire from professional football.

Bordeaux brought the striker back to the club at the beginning of the 2004–05 season, at place where he had found glory earlier, but as he got older, he never found his old form, only scoring nine goals in 41 starts for the French club.

Laslandes returned briefly to Sunderland in the summer of 2003 for pre-season training with new manager Mick McCarthy. However, all parties agreed he had no future at Sunderland. Despite chairman Bob Murray's efforts to secure a transfer fee for the former French international, Sunderland's crippling debts, combined with Laslandes' Premiership wages, put Murray in a weak bargaining position, with the result that Laslandes was released from his contract and joined French first division club OGC Nice at the start of the 2003–04 season.

Arriving in June 2001, Peter Reid found a replacement for the ageing Niall Quinn. Lots of media hype surrounded the powerful Frenchman as the club paid £3.6m for his signature, but he struggled to adapt to both the pace of the English Premiership and Sunderland's style of direct football. Laslandes' relationship with manager Peter Reid had also irretrievably broken down. After 12 appearances with no league goals and one in the League Cup against Sheffield Wednesday, Peter Reid decided to cut his losses. Laslandes was quickly shipped off in January 2002 to German club 1. FC Köln on loan, where he played five matches without scoring, which earned him the derogatory nickname "LasLandesliga". This was followed by a more successful loan to French first division club Bastia for the 2002–03 season, where he scored eight goals in 30 appearances.

Laslandes then moved to Girondins de Bordeaux on a free transfer on 1 August 1997. He was signed for his excellent scoring record and he lived to his name, scoring 47 goals in 119 appearances for the club. Foreign clubs were starting to take notice of the Frenchman and his consistent goalscoring ability, including some from England, Germany and Spain.

Lilian Laslandes (French pronunciation: ​[liljɑ̃ lɑsˈlɑ̃d] ; born 4 September 1971) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. Between 1997 and 1999 he was capped seven times and scored three goals for the France national team. He ended his professional footballing career at OGC Nice in 2008.