Debut: Vs Salford Red Devils (H) 16/02/2024
Honours:
Super League Grand Final: Finalist 2021 (Catalans)
Challenge Cup: Winner 2018 (Catalans)
League Leaders Shield: Winner 2021 (Catalans)
French international forward Mickael Goudemand arrived at Headingley having signed a two-year contract from Catalans Dragons ahead of the 2024 season.
Debuting against Salford in the opening game of the season, Goudemand played seventeen consecutive Super League games for the club around the forward pack and scored his sole try against London Broncos in a convincing 46-8 win. However, he only played once in the final ten games of the season before the player and club agreed to mutually end the deal to pursue other playing opportunities.
The forward was capped twelve times by France and was a Challenge Cup winner with Catalans at Wembley in 2018 in only his sixth game for the club. Prior to joining Catalans he made 65 appearances for hometown club Avignon in the French Elite Championship between 2010-16 and also spent a brief period at Dewsbury in 2017, playing eight times to develop his game, before backing himself to earn a Super League contract by moving to Perpignan to join the Dragons reserve team St Estève XIII Catalan.
Having aided the side to Coupe de France success, he caught the eye of Head Coach Steve McNamara and rewarded his coach on debut with two tries against Whitehaven in the Challenge Cup in May 2018. He was then drafted into the Wembley side 24 hours before the Challenge Cup Final against Warrington after Louis Anderson was ruled out by a late fitness test. Remarkably, he only signed his first full-time contract with the Dragons at the end of the 2018 season and after he had helped the club make history at Wembley.
During the next five years at Catalans, Goudemand helped the club climb the league table to claim their first League Leaders' Title in 2021, a season in which the forward played 21 times and scored three times. In the same year, he featured in the Super League semi final win over Hull KR and walked out at Old Trafford a week later in Grand Final defeat to St Helens.
Originally from Vaucluse, he made nearly 100 appearances for Catalans before joining up with international team mate Justin Sangare at Headingley as well as former colleague Richard Hunwicks, the Rhinos Performance Director, who worked with Catalans between 2017 and 2021.