Mickaël Pontal

Mickaël Pontal (born 30 April 1980) is a former French professional footballer. He retired from playing in 2012 and is now a professional soccer coach. His position was that of a defender, and positionally, a centre-back. As a player, he played 132 matches and won 7 trophies across different leagues.

Pontal played at the professional level in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 for AS Saint-Étienne. He also played in Valence, St Raphaël, Cannes, Compiègne, Hyères, Andrézieux before starting a coaching career in Andrézieux, Savigneux-Montbrison and Louhans-Cuiseaux.

Club career
Pontal started his professional football career at AS Saint-Étienne (also known as ASSE) in the 1997-1998 season. He played for the club between 1997 until 2004 in different divisions and scoring 7 goals. In between this time, he moved for one season in 2002 to Angers to get more playing time.

In the 2004-2005 season, he was loaned to ASOA Valence in the National Ligue where he stayed for one year.

In the 2005-2006 season, he played for Cannes, making 36 appearances before moving to Saint-Raphaël  for the rest of the 2006-2007 season. In 2007-2008 season he played for Compiègne and moved to Hyères from 2008 till 2010 making 55 appearances for the club. His last professional club was Andrézieux in 2010 where he retired 2012.

Coaching career
Pontal started his coaching career at Andrézieux coaching the B and Under 19 teams between 2012 and 2013. He then moved to coach Savigneux for a short spell in 2014 before moving to Louhans as head coach for the 2014-2015 season. He returned to coach the Under 17 team at AS Saint-Étienne before moving to Feurs for a 3 year coaching role. In 2019, he left Feurs to Veauche. He left the coahcing role at Veache at the end of 2022.

Honors

 * 1997: Under 17 - French Champion AS Saint-Étienne.
 * 1998: Coupe Gambardella with AS Saint-Étienne
 * 1999: Ligue 2 French Champion AS Saint-Étienne
 * 2000: CFA2 French Champions AS Saint-Étienne
 * 2004: Ligue 2 French Champion AS Saint-Étienne