Bixente Jean Michel Lizarazu (, born 9 December 1969) is a French former professional footballer who played as a left-back.
He rose through the ranks at Bordeaux, where he was part of a team that finished second in the French First Division in 1989–1990, were administratively relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1990–1991 due to financial problems, and then won promotion from the Second Division in the 1991–92 season. His Bordeaux team finished runners-up in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. As he is a native of the French Basque Country, he was able to join Athletic Club in 1996, but did not nail down a starting spot during his one season at the club.
In 1997, he joined German giants Bayern Munich, where he enjoyed much success. He won six Bundesliga championships with the team, as well as the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, where he scored his penalty in the shootout in the final. He is of Basque descent.
Club career
Bordeaux
An enthusiast in several sports from a young age, Lizarazu began his professional career with Bordeaux, joining the club's youth setup as a 15-year-old in 1984 and initially playing as a winger. to qualify for the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. They would go all the way to the final under coach Rohr, beating Real Betis, A.C. Milan and Slavia Prague before losing to Bayern Munich 5–1 on aggregate. He appeared 299 times for his formative club, scoring 28 goals.
Athletic Bilbao
Lizarazu spent just one season with the La Liga club after becoming the first Frenchman to play for Athletic, which has a policy of selecting only players of Basque birth or heritage.
Suffering from a persistent groin injury, and the Intercontinental Cup. He made 268 appearances in all competitions for Bayern between 1997 and 2006, scoring eight goals. 183 of these games were in the German top-flight.
International career
Lizarazu was capped 97 times for France (for the first time on 14 November 1992 against Finland), scoring two goals, and helped them win the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000, starting in the final of both tournaments. He was also part of squad for France in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, though France were eliminated from group stage in the tournament without scoring a single goal where he was involved all 3 matches in the group stage.
Personal life
After retirement, Lizarazu got involved in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He competed in a jiu-jitsu competition in Europe in 2009, where he became European champion in the Blue Belt Senior 1 Light Division. He is also a keen surfer In 2013, Lizarazu was described as a "tramp" by his successor as France's left-back, Patrice Evra, after he and other pundits criticised Evra for giving an impromptu team talk during half-time of a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Belarus. Lizarazu has two children. He is in a relationship with actress Claire Keim with whom he has a daughter. Lizarazu is a native speaker of Basque and French. In addition, he also speaks Spanish, German and English.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|National cup
!colspan="2"|League cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="9"|Bordeaux
|1988–89
|rowspan="3"|Division 1
|16||0||1||0||colspan="2"|–||0||0||colspan="2"|–||17||0
|-
|1989–90
|38||2||4||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||42||2
|-
|1990–91
|35||2||1||0||colspan="2"|–||6||0||colspan="2"|–||42||2
|-
|1991–92
|Division 2
|33||0||3||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||36||0
|-
|1992–93
|rowspan="4"|Division 1
|35||4||3||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||38||4
|-
|1993–94
|32||9||3||0||colspan="2"|–||6||0||colspan="2"|–||41||9
|-
|1994–95
|32||2||2||1||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|–||39||3
|-
|1995–96
|23||3||0||0||0||0||10||1||7||4||40||8
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!244||22||17||1||1||0||26||1||7||4||295||28
|-
|Athletic Bilbao
|1996–97
|La Liga
|16||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||18||0
|-
|rowspan="8"|Bayern Munich
|1997–98
|rowspan="7"|Bundesliga
|19||0|||3||0||2||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||24||0
|-
|1998–99
|19||2||5||1||0||0||9||0||colspan="2"|–||33||3
|-
|1999–2000
|22||1||1||0||0||0||10||0||colspan="2"|–||33||1
|-
|2000–01
|15||0||1||0||0||0||10||0||colspan="2"|–||26||0
|-
|2001–02
|25||1||1||0||0||0||12||0||2||0||40||1
|-
|2002–03
|26||2||5||0||0||0||3||0||colspan="2"|–||34||2
|-
|2003–04
|26||1||1||0||0||0||8||0||colspan="2"|–||35||1
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!152||7|||17||1||2||0||54||0||2||0||227||8
|-
|Marseille
|2004–05
|Ligue 1
|14||0||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||15||0
|-
|rowspan="3"|Bayern Munich
|2004–05
|rowspan="2"|Bundesliga
|13||0||2||0||0||0||4||0||colspan="2"|–||19||0
|-
|2005–06
|18||0||2||0||1||0||6||0||colspan="2"|–||27||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!31||0||4||0||1||0||10||0||colspan="2"|–||46||0
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!457||29||40||2||5||0||90||1||9||4||601||36
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="13"|France
|1992||1||0
|-
|1993||6||0
|-
|1994||5||0
|-
|1995||5||1
|-
|1996||9||0
|-
|1997||4||0
|-
|1998||13||1
|-
|1999||6||0
|-
|2000||12||0
|-
|2001||10||0
|-
|2002||7||0
|-
|2003||12||0
|-
|2004||7||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!97!!2
|}
:Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lizarazu goal.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Bixente Lizarazu
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Venue
!scope="col"|Opponent
!scope="col"|Score
!scope="col"|Result
!scope="col"|Competition
|-
|align="center"|1
|15 November 1995
|Stade Michel d'Ornano, Caen, France
|
|align="center"|2–0
|align="center"|2–0
|UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
|-
|align="center"|2
|18 June 1998
|Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France
|
|align="center"|4–0
|align="center"|4–0
|1998 FIFA World Cup
|}
Honours
Bordeaux
- Division 2: 1991–92
- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1995
- UEFA Cup runner-up: 1995–96
Bayern Munich
- Bundesliga: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
- DFB-Pokal: 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
- DFB-Ligapokal: 1997
- UEFA Champions League: 2000–01; runner-up: 1998–99
- Intercontinental Cup: 2001
France
- UEFA Team of the Year: 2001
- FIFA XI: 2002
- Équipe type spéciale 20 ans des trophées UNFP: 2011
Orders
- Knight of the Legion of Honour: 1998
- Officer of the Legion of Honour: 2025