Dimitry Bertaud

Dimitry Jean Sylvain Bertaud Yaka (born 6 June 1998) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Montpellier and the DR Congo national team.

[2] Bertaud first joined his local football academy, Avenir Castriote, at age 6, where he stayed for seven years, before moving to Montpellier's youth system.

A broken finger for main man Geoffrey Jourdren in November meant that both Pionnier and Ligali would play with the first team, leaving open the number 1 spot for the reserves.

Bertaud's breakthrough carried on, however, and in April Rolland Courbis called him up to the first team, while Ligali and a recovered Pionnier played with reserves.

However, despite Jourdren suffering a series of injuries and missing out on most of the season, Pionnier and Ligali continued switching places between first and reserve teams, leaving the younger goalkeepers out.

Bertaud was also challenged by Boucherat, who now claimed more playing time, being the reserves' main goalkeeper, following his "graduation" from the club's U19 side.

Montpellier had a terrible start at the Ligue 1, with 5 points in 10 games and, despite improving and climbing to 15th place, Courbis resigned after the season's first half, and he was replaced by Frédéric Hantz.

Excluding another brief stint on the main team's bench, he kept the starting spot during March, before playing the reserves' final three games into June.

[3] With Ligali joining Dunkerque on loan, Bertaud became Montpellier's third-in-line, behind Pionnier and Benjamin Lecomte, who was transferred from Lorient to replace Jourdren, who himself left for Nancy.

Bertaud also played in the Coupe de France round of 32 match against Lorient on 24 January, a hard-fought 4–3 win for Montpellier, before they were knocked out of the cup by Lyon.

Bertaud also played his first Ligue 1 game on 20 January, due to Lecomte fracturing his rib, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw against Rennes.

He also played in the Coupe de France round of 16 game against Belfort, coming on after Rulli was sent off in the 4th minute of stoppage time.

Bertaud remained second in line after Rulli returned to Sociedad, as coach Der Zakarian brought in Swiss international Jonas Omlin.

After France lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria, Bertaud debuted on 27 March against Israel, the game ending 0–0.

Thanks to his Ligue 1 performances, Bertaud was called up to the France national under-21 football team by Sylvain Ripoll for the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification tournament, where he was the second choice behind Nantes' Alban Lafont with Leeds' Illan Meslier.

In the final tournament, Bertaud stayed on the bench as France placed second in Group C, before being knocked out by the Netherlands at the quarter-finals.

Bertaud warming up for Montpellier HSC in December 2020
Bertaud warming up for Montpellier in August 2022