West Ham United have been represented by more players from France than from any other country outside the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Twenty players from the country across the English Channel have pulled on the famous Claret and Blue shirt since defender David Terrier made a solitary appearance for the Club back in August 1997.
Since then, the likes of FIFA World Cup champions Alphonse Areola and Bernard Lama, Hammer of the Year award winners Sébastien Schemmel and Dimitri Payet and fan favourites Marc Keller and Samassi Abou have also represented the Club.
For the record, the others were Christian Bassila, Laurent Courtois, Youssef Sofiane, Édouard Cissé, Jérémie Aliadière, David Bellion, Frédéric Piquionne, Alou Diarra, Patrice Evra, Morgan Amalfitano, Samir Nasri, Issa Diop and current first-team defender Jean-Clair Todibo.
To mark the signing of France U21 international Soungoutou Magassa from AS Monaco, we meet six of the Frenchmen to call themselves Hammers…
David Terrier
David Terrier played for West Ham United for just one minute, appearing as a late substitute for Paul Kitson in the 2-1 Premier League win at Barnsley on the opening weekend of the 1997/98 season. The Verdun-born defender had spent his entire senior career with nearby Metz, playing well over 100 games for the club before being signed by Harry Redknapp.
Terrier moved on to Newcastle United in January 1998, then returned to France with Nice, Ajaccio – where he won Ligue 2 in 2001/02 – and Créteil-Lusitanos, before retiring in 2007. More recently, he was vice president of French player union UNFP and in 2023 was elected president of FIFPRO Europe.
Samassi Abou
Born in Ivory Coast, Samassi Abou moved to France with his family as a child and joined Martigues on the Côte d’Azur. A striker, Abou played for Olympique Lyonnais between 1992-96, during which he was capped by France U21s, and for Cannes for just over a season.
He was signed by Harry Redknapp in October 1997 and debuted in a Premier League game at Chelsea the following month. Abou’s best moment in a West Ham shirt came in January 1998, when he scored twice in a Premier League record 6-0 home win over Barnsley.
After scoring six goals in 31 appearances and becoming a cult hero among fans who would shout ‘Abouuuuuuuuuuu’ whenever he was in possession, the forward was loaned to four clubs before signing for Ajaccio in 2000 and finishing out his career at Lorient.
Sébastien Schemmel
Arguably the most unlikely Hammer of the Year of all-time, Sébastien Schemmel was a virtual unknown in English football before signing for West Ham United in the summer of 2001. The floppy-haired full-back had spent the first eight years of his professional career with hometown club Nancy, winning promotion from Ligue 2 in 1998, and Metz, for whom he played against the Irons in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.
After joining Harry Redknapp’s squad at the recommendation of scout Glenn Roeder, his second appearance was the famous 1-0 FA Cup fourth-round win at Manchester United in January 2001 inspired by Paolo Di Canio’s goal. Roeder then made him a first-team regular after replacing Redknapp that summer.
Schemmel excelled in 2001/02, starting 35 Premier League matches as Roeder’s Hammers finished seventh and was rewarded with the Hammer of the Year award ahead of Di Canio, Trevor Sinclair, Frederic Kanoute and a young Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe.
He was reunited with Redknapp at Portsmouth in January 2003, finished his playing career at Le Havre and now owns and runs a restaurant in Luxembourg named ‘Upton Park’!
Julien Faubert
Born in the port city of Le Havre on France’s Normandy coast, Julien Faubert joined Cannes as a 15-year-old, then came to prominence during a three-season spell at Bordeaux between 2004-07. It was during his time at Bordeaux that Faubert became the first player to wear No10 for France following Zinedine Zidane’s retirement in August 2006, and he marked the occasion with a goal in a 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nicknamed ‘Le TGV’ (The Express Train) for his searing pace, Faubert suffered a serious injury in pre-season after joining West Ham United in summer 2007. He recovered his fitness to play 121 games across five seasons, climaxing in the 2012 EFL Championship Play-Off final win over Blackpool at Wembley Stadium.
Faubert was also famously loaned to Real Madrid in January 2009. He later played in Turkey, Scotland, Finland, Indonesia and had a second spell at Bordeaux and also represented Martinique at international level.
Dimitri Payet
Few players have caught the imagination of the Claret and Blue Army quite like the mercurial Dimitri Payet did following his arrival from Olympique Marseille in summer 2015. Quite simply, Payet was unstoppable in his only full season at West Ham United, winning the Hammer of the Year award and being voted into the PFA Premier League Team of the Year.
His spectacular performances and goals helped the Hammers finish seventh in the table and qualify for Europe, and he followed that with more eye-catching displays for France at UEFA Euro 2016, where his national team finished as runners-up.
Payet departed the Club amid controversy in January 2017. He spent another six-and-a-half seasons with Marseille and two-and-a-bit with Vasco da Gama in Brazil, playing over 800 career matches for club and country.
Kurt Zouma
Had it not been for injuries, Kurt Zouma could have arguably been one of the best centre-backs in Premier League history. As it was, the Lyon-born defender was still a force to be reckoned with during his time with Chelsea, Stoke City, Everton and, between 2021-25, West Ham United.
A prodigy and French Coupe de la Ligue winner at Saint-Étienne and FIFA U-20 World Cup winner with France, Zouma was signed by Chelsea at 19 in 2014 and won two Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League with the Blues. He also travelled to UEFA Euro 2020 with his national team.
By the time he joined West Ham, knee problems had slowed Zouma, but his positional sense, strength and courage saw him remain a dominant defender. He was part of the team which won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023 and made 103 appearances across three seasons before moving to Saudi club Al-Orobah in summer 2024.
