As Hamilton come to the Kilmac Stadium at Dens Park on Wednesday for a Ladbrokes Premiership game, we take a look at a player who has played for both clubs, striker Mickaël Antoine-Curier.
Mickaël Antoine-Curier lead a bit of a nomadic football career where he played for 23 clubs in seven different countries including for Dundee FC between 2008 and 2010 and three different spells with Hamilton Academical.
Born in Orsay in France in March 1983, Antoine-Curier played youth football with Paris Saint-Germain and Nice before crossing the Channel to start his professional career in Britain.
Eager to play in the United Kingdom, Mickaël signed for Preston North End and then Nottingham Forest as a youth and finished as top scorer for the Forest academy team with 22 goals in 19 games. He won the trophy for the academy player of the year and was selected as man of the match of the Charity Vase final by Brian Clough, but he never made it into the first team.
During the 2002/03 season, the Forest manager Paul Hart loaned him out to Brentford, where he made 11 starts, scoring three goals which included a brace in an important 2–0 victory at Chesterfield.
At the start of the 2003/04 season, he left Forest to sign for Oldham Athletic to get first team football. He grabbed his first cup goal in a 2–1 defeat at Scunthorpe United, and then scored his first league goal for the “Latics” four days later in a 2–2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday‘s Hillsborough Stadium. However he would make just six starts and three substitute appearances for the Boundary Park club and scored three goals before being released.
Antoine-Curier then signed for Kidderminster Harriers, before joining Rochdale on a non-contract basis. He made five starts and five substitute appearances for Rochdale, scoring on his debut in a 1–1 draw at Lincoln City. He then left Rochdale to join Sheffield Wednesday, a club he had scored against earlier on in the season. He made just one substitute appearance for Wednesday, in a 0–0 draw against Luton Town at Hillsborough.
Mickaël’s nomadic career was by then in full swing when he then moved to Notts County, where he made four starts, scoring in a 3–1 win over Grimsby Town, whom he signed for shortly afterwards. He also made five appearances for Grimsby but did not score and both Grimsby and Notts County were relegated at the end of the season.
After an unsettled time in England, Curier joined Norwegian First Division side Vard Haugesund in 2004. In his first season, he scored seven goals in 16 appearances, but the club was relegated. He scored 27 goals in 21 games in the 2005 season, winning the Norwegian golden boot and the Norwegian Second Division player of the year award. He then transferred to FK Haugesund, and scored eight goals in 24 appearances in the 2006 season and seven goals in 15 appearances in the 2007 season and his time at Norway was a positive one, where he was nicknamed Batigol and David Trezeguet.
Antoine-Curier was invited by manager John Collins to Scottish Premier League side Hibernian for a trial period in 2007. He starred in a friendly match against Livingston and scored four goals in a 5–2 victory to earn a one-year deal with Hibs paying FK Haugesund a nominal transfer fee on August 31st.
Mickaël scored against Motherwell in the Scottish League Cup and Kilmarnock in the SPL but despite scoring four goals in nine appearances fell out of favour after Hibs signed Colin Nish.
Curier was therefore loaned out to Dundee in January 2008 and made a scoring debut against Livingston in a 1-1 draw at Almondvale. Curier hit the ground running for Jocky Scott’s side and scored six goals in his first five Dundee appearances including another brace against Livi in March.
At the end of the season Curier signed a three-year deal with Dundee and scored in the first two games of the season against Ross County and Clyde as the Dark Blues looked to won promotion back to the SPL at the fourth attempt.
However by the end of the season Dundee had failed to go up again, finishing fourth, 15 points behind champions St Johnstone, despite Mickaël scoring 14 goals in his 34 appearances.
At the start of the 2009/10 season Curier scored three goals against Cowdenbeath and Forfar in cup competitions but with new signings Leigh Griffiths and Sean Higgins as well as Colin McMenamin being ahead of him in the pecking order, he was allowed to go out on loan to SPL side Hamilton until the end of the campaign.
Curier scored on his Accies debut in a 2-0 win over old side Hibs and would go on to score 11 times in 30 appearances as Hamilton retained their top flight status for the second year in a row.
Curier returned to Dens Park in the summer and now had a new manager in Gordon Chisholm but struggled with injury and failed to even make it on the bench.
On October 15th 2010 Dundee FC entered Administration for a second time in seven years and Antoine-Curier was unfortunately one of the 9 players released. With injury preventing him from finding another club immediately, he had to wait until January when he returned to New Douglas Park until the end of the season.
Curier scored in his second Accies game away at Inverness and notched five goals in 14 appearances but this Hamilton couldn’t defy the odds and were relegated in 12th place to the First Division.
In the summer Mickaël left Lanarkshire and signed a two-year deal with Cypriot side Ermis Aradippou in July. However his contract was terminated due to financial difficulties at the club and he joined Ermis’ former president and a host of the club’s former players at Ethnikos Achnas in August, just days before the start of the season
In April 2012, he joined Malaysian side Felda United FC with his fellow countryman Eddy Viator and scored on his league debut in a 2–0 home win over Kedah FA.
In February 2013, Antoine-Curier joined Kazakhstan Premier League club FC Atyrau but his time in Kazakhstan was overshadowed where he was an outcast with his team-mates, spat on by opposing fans and refused accommodation because of the colour of his skin.
In August the striker returned to Hamilton for a third spell and was part of the Accies side to finish second behind Dundee in the SPFL Championship. He scored 13 goals in 36 appearances, including four against Morton in a 10-2 win on the last day of the season but it wasn’t enough to pip The Dee to the title
Accies did however win promotion to the Premiership with a play-off victory over Hibernian and Curier scored one of the spot kicks as Hamilton beat Hibs 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw.
Back in the top flight Curier scored eight goals in 25 appearances but asked to be released in January and joined English League Two side Burton Albion until the end of the season.
In August the forward returned to Scotland joined League One side Dunfermline Athletic but with chances limited at East End Park left after just four months at the club.
Following his release from The Pars, Antoine-Curier signed for Belgian Second Division side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise on an 18-month contract but his time with the club was hindered by a recurring knee-injury, and in January 2017 he was loaned out to Belgian Fourth Division side Eendracht Aalst.
In September 2017, he signed for National 3 side FC Mulhouse on a one-year deal and hung up his well travelled boots at the end of the season.
Whilst at Dens Park Curier was called up by the Guadeloupe national team, the birthplace of his parents and was capped ten times by the French overseas region. As they are not an independent nation, Guadeloupe are not permitted to play in FIFA international tournaments but are invited to play in the Caribbean Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Curier played in both.
In the 2008 Caribbean Cup Curier scored six times and was the last Dee to score in an international until Glen Kamara netted for Finland earlier this season and also played in the 2009 Gold Cup where they exceeded all expectations and reached the quarter-finals.
Appearances, Goals with Dundee:
League: 40 (+ 3 subs), 22 goals
Scottish Cup: 1 sub
League Cup: 2, 2 goals
Challenge Cup: 1, 1 goal
Totals: 47, 25 goals
