Philippe Mexes (born March 30, 1982 in Toulouse, France) is a French professional football (soccer) player, who currently plays as a centreback for Italian club AS Roma.
      Philippe Mexes began his career with local club Toulouse FC, with his older sister regularly taking him to the training sessions. However, he left for AJ Auxerre's youth team when he was sixteen years old. He successfully participated in the Under-18 and Under-21 French national football teams, eventually winning a spot in the senior squad in August 2002. Since 2002 he has only been called up a few times, after he failed to make the French squad for the 2004 European Football Championship. He was recently called up for France's friendly match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in August 2006.
      Mexes is currently one of the backbones of the AS Roma team coached by Luciano Spalletti. After a difficult first season with the capitoline club, Mexes began the 2005-06 campaign on the bench, leaving the central defender spot to Sammy Kuffour. However, as Kuffour was on national team duty for Ghana, Mexes slowly gained playing time. He quickly became a key player in the record-breaking Roma campaign and he was widely considered one of the best defenders of the competition. His performances as a defender have seen him likened to Laurent Blanc, another French footballer.