Martin Méliande

Martin Méliande and his twin brother Paul were boarders together at the sports school in Pau. Martin was there for the rugby. Paul was there for the football, and turned professional at Pau FC.

Méliande plays fly-half and full-back for Lyon, is 1.87m and 82kg, and was born in Orthez on 20 December 2001.

The family was a sporting one on both sides: his father played football, his mother basketball. Martin started at US Orthez at five.

Pau’s academy took him in 2015. He left after a single year and went back to Orthez, which is an unusual direction of travel for a fifteen-year-old inside a professional system, and it cost him five years.

Biarritz took him into their espoirs side in 2020. He moved to Bressane for the 2021-22 Pro D2 season and helped keep them up, and Racing 92 signed him from there in 2022.

He got eleven Top 14 matches at Racing in 2023-24, four of them starts, and scored 23 points. He played once in the Champions Cup.

Lyon took him on loan for 2024-25 and had seen enough by December to sign him outright from the following season, on three years. Lyon reached the Challenge Cup final that spring and were beaten.

Leaving an academy at sixteen usually ends the professional conversation for good. Méliande went back to his village club, took the long way through the second division, and arrived in the Top 14 at 23 with a three-year contract. Very few players get a second entry point once they have walked out of the first one.