Forgotten Rovers: Damien Plessis

January 2012 saw Rovers sign a number of players including three on the same day, Mamadou Bakayoko, Habib Bamogo and Damien Plessis. With all three coming in as part of the dreaded 'experiment'. 

The idea was these players were brought in by their agent Willie Mckay, be cheap for the club, help the club stay in the championship and boost the reputation of these players, putting them in 'the shop window' for a move to the Premiership. 

None of these players really made an impact, and will be quickly forgotten, however one player, many Rovers fans will find it hard to understand existed. 

Damien Plessis. Making a magnificent 0 appearances, in fact pop star Louis Tomlinson has had more of a playing infact, in fact a 52 year old has made more of an impact.

So who is he?

He is a towering, strong, defensive midfielder, the Frenchman was 15 when he was a highly rated talent. If you read an earlier article about failed talents I wrote, he would certainly fit into that list.

He began to be recognised whilst playing for Lyon's youth before a 2007 move to English giants, Liverpool. Manager Rafa Benitez holding him in high regard. In 2008 his impressive reserve team form earned him his first team debut.

This form also earned him international call up for the French u21 team, having previously been capped at u20, u19, u18 amd u17.

His career was certainly looking promising. However had tough competition for places with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso.

In 2010 he joined Panathinaikos for an undisclosed fee, he was signed with lots of potential, however, he failed to impress his manager with poor performances. In July 2011 the Greek club allowed him to go on trial to Sven Goran Eriksson's Leicester City, however the former England manager cut this trial short due to Damien failing to impress. He was also rumoured to be in talks with 1860 Munich, however this came to nothing and he returned to Panathinaikos.

After 6 months he then came to the keepmoat on loan to try and resurrect his career. Or did he?

Well we have no idea if he actually found the keepmoat. 

All we saw of him was his signing picture along with Bomogo and Bakayoko. 

This was strange, especially considering at the time, a strong, towering defensive midfielder was well needed, but we never saw him.

I would love to talk more about his time at Rovers, but there is nothing more to say. We don't know why he never played, many of use a few years on, don't really care.

The fact that Chris Black played more games for Rovers then Plessis. 

Forgotten? Well it is easy to.

So where is he now?

As you can imagine, his time at Rovers did not re start his career and he didn't return to the Premiership. Instead he was released by Panathinaikos and signed for French Ligue 2 side, Arles-Avignon. 

Infact, he seemed to find his feet here, and played regularly making 40 appearances in 1 and a half seasons.

In January 2014 he moved to Swiss Super League side, Fc Lausanne-Sport.

So there you have it, Damien Plessis, forgotten Rover, however maybr this has been a waste of time as he never seemingly was here. Infact I have probably spent more time and put more effect into writting the badly written article, then Damien did for Rovers. And for that reason, be sure to give us a follow on twitter and facebook, share with friends and leave a comment. 

My honest opinion, maybe he already had the move to Ligue 2 lined up. But this is just an opinion. 

Thanks for reading.
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