“After fourteen professional seasons, I’m bringing my career to an end, with a heavy heart but a light mind.” Xavier Mignot announced his decision on Friday, by agreement with Valence-Romans.
The statement came out on Friday, in the middle of a day of friendlies. Valence-Romans and Xavier Mignot agreed to end the wing’s contract, which ran until 2028, and with it his professional career. He was 32 and had played six matches for the Damiers.
“Rugby never gave me anything. It taught me to go and get it,” the player wrote on Instagram. “After fourteen professional seasons, I’m bringing my career to an end, with a heavy heart but a light mind.”
More than two hundred matches and 53 tries
Fourteen professional seasons, more than two hundred matches and 53 tries in all competitions. The heart of that career lies with two clubs: Grenoble, where he made his name, and LOU, where he spent most of it, from 2017 to autumn 2024.
| Period | Club | Matches | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-2014 | Bourgoin-Jallieu | 33 | 4 |
| 2014-2017 | Grenoble | 51 | 12 |
| 2017-2024 | LOU | 110 | 29 |
| Spring 2025 | NOLA Gold | 9 | 7 |
| 2026 | Valence-Romans | 6 | 0 |
The breakdown by competition shows the level he reached: 129 Top 14 matches, 13 in the Champions Cup and 19 in the Challenge Cup. His busiest season was 2021-2022, with eighteen Top 14 matches and four in the Challenge Cup in a Lyon shirt.
One cap, in Argentina
A product of Bourgoin-Jallieu, Mignot won his only France cap on the 2016 summer tour to Argentina, aged 22. Fabien Galthié was not yet in charge, and it was Guy Novès who picked him among the seven new faces on the trip. Named to start on the wing for the first Test in Tucumán, he had to withdraw injured before kick-off, and his France team-mate Hugo Bonneval, then at Stade Français, played in his place. Mignot finally started the second Test six days later, a 27-0 France win. He then left Grenoble when the club were relegated in 2017 and joined Lyon.
After leaving Lyon in autumn 2024, he crossed the Atlantic to play the MLR season with NOLA Gold, from February to June 2025. It was his most productive spell in terms of ratio: seven tries in nine matches. On his return he accepted Valence-Romans’ offer in January for one last go. “The aim is to enjoy myself on the pitch, that’s why I said yes,” he explained in April. Injuries decided otherwise: six matches, two of them as a starter, and no tries.
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