Paul Jean François Bernardoni (born 18 April 1997) is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Swiss Super League club Yverdon-Sport.

After his move to the Girondins was made permanent, Bernardoni spent four years waiting to reclaim his first team place, meanwhile playing with Bordeaux's reserves and going out loan to Clermont and Nîmes.

[citation needed] Bernardoni started playing football at the nearby club of AS Lieusaint at the age of 8, where he stayed for 6 years, before moving up to Linas-Montlhéry.

[citation needed] After 2 years at Linas-Montlhéry, Bernardoni finally left the Île-de-France and moved to Troyes, where he quickly made his way to the starting line-up of the club's U19 team.

[citation needed] Troyes won the match 2–0, earning Bernardoni his first clean sheet at a professional level,[6] as well as a call-up on France's national under-18 football team.

[citation needed] Bernardoni played the opener of Troyes' return to the top flight, due to main man Denis Petrić suffering from a strained thigh muscle, as the team drew Gazélec Ajaccio 0–0 on 8 August.

[citation needed] This incentivised coach Jean-Marc Furlan to shake-up the team by switching the starting line-up around, and Bernardoni returned to the number 1 spot.

[7] After Cédric Carrasso, who had been Bordeaux's starting goalkeeper for 7 years straight, suffered an ACL rupture near the end of the Winter transfer window, the Girondins rushed to find a replacement, overlooking second-choice Jérôme Prior.

[citation needed] Bernardoni played his first game for Bordeaux on February 3, just 3 days after signing his contract, as the team suffered a 3–0 loss to Lyon.

[citation needed] Carrasso's recovery and the arrival of Jocelyn Gourvennec's as head coach resulted in Bernardoni being relegated to Bordeaux's third-in-line goalkeeper, and in fact he played no matches for the first team during the entire season.

[citation needed] He eventually returned to the first team's bench as Carrasso would suffer a hamstring injury on 22 October, against Nancy, and Prior would take his place in the starting 11.

The Lanciers were looking for a replacement, after their starting goalkeeper, Marc-Aurèle Caillard, had left the club for Guingamp, and manager Corinne Diacre chose Bernardoni to play that role.

Even after her departure and the arrival of Pascal Gastien, he was irreplaceable between the goalposts, as he led the club to a mere breath away from the promotion play-offs, missing out by just 2 points, as Clermont finished 6th.

[10] Prior's departure from Bordeaux seemed to open up a spot behind Costil, yet despite Bernardoni's performance in the previous season, manager Gus Poyet preferred the homegrown Gaëtan Poussin.

[11] As Nîmes were a freshly-promoted team to the Ligue 1, manager Bernard Blaquart jumped on the opportunity to sign Bernardoni on loan, sidelining the previous season's starting man, Baptiste Valette.

[15][16][17] Following Ludovic Butelle's subpar performances during the 2019–20 season, Angers manager Stéphane Moulin sought a goalkeeper who would replace him, relegating him to the bench.

As the France national under-17 football team played through the qualifying round of the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in October 2013, Bernardoni was called up by Laurent Guyot, alongside Rennes' Romain Cagnon.

[3] As a Ligue 1 player, Bernardoni was one of the favourites to be called up by Ludovic Batelli, as the France national under-19 football team played through the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification.

[citation needed] France hosted Group 10, where they placed a comfortable 1st, after beating Liechtenstein 3–1 on 7 October and Gibraltar 9-0 2 days later, a match which Bernardoni sat out in favour of Braat.

In the group stage, France started off on the wrong foot, losing 1–2 to England on the 12th, however they immediately bounced back, beating Croatia with a score of 2–0 on the 15th and the Netherlands with a staggering 5–1 on the 18th.

[citation needed] Coach Batelli followed a season-by-season progression from U-18s to U-20s, and this allowed him to take Bernardoni on the same path, especially after he played an important part in winning the UEFA European Under-19 Championship the previous year, with which France had qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

[citation needed] Bernardoni kept moving upwards, as Sylvain Ripoll called him up to the France national under-21 football team for the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification tournament.

[citation needed] At the tournament itself, he retained his position, ahead of Brest's Gautier Larsonneur and Sochaux's Maxence Prévot, who had also been on the bench during the later qualifying games.

[citation needed] France's participation in the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship knockout stage earned them qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and coach Ripoll called Bernardoni up once more, alongside Saint-Étienne's Stefan Bajic and Montpellier's Dimitry Bertaud.

[citation needed] The heavy defeat and last-minute victory meant that France had to beat Japan by a margin of at least 2 goals, if they were to proceed to the knockout stage.