Aimé Jacquet

Aimé Jacquet (June 5, 2005)

Aimé Jacquet (born November 27, 1941 in Sail-sous-Couzan , Loire department ) is a former French football player , coach and association manager. In 1998 he won the world title as coach of France. From 1998 he was the technical director of the French national football team and won the European championship in this role. At the end of 2006 he announced the end of his footballing activities.

The player

The midfielder began his playing career with the US Sail-sous-Couzan ; during his military service he laced his football boots at AS PTT Nice . He signed his first professional contract in 1961 with AS Saint-Étienne , for which he first played a first division game in December 1960 . In the beginning, he also worked full-time in a small company. He played very successfully for the Verts for twelve years and was national champion five times and cup winners three times (1962, 1968 and 1970) in 1964 and 1967 to 1970 . He has also played in all three European Cup competitions for ASSE. In 1973 he moved to Olympique Lyon .
In September (against West Germany ) and October 1968, Jacquet was also appointed to the French national team twice .

In his autobiography, published in 1998, he rates his successful playing career with the words: "I was a very good midfielder, nothing more."

Club stations

• Union Sportive Sail-sous-Couzan
• Association Sportive de Postes, Télégraphes and Téléphones Nice
• Association Sportive Saint-Étienne (1960–1973; 190 games and 21 goals in the D1; 13 European Cup games)
• Olympique Lyonnais (1973–1976; 22 games, 2 goals in the D1)

The trainer

In the club

In February 1976 Aimé Jacquet moved from the field to the coaching chair of his Lyon team. For the 1980/81 season he went to Girondins Bordeaux . There Aimé Jacquet was three times French champion (1984, 1985, 1987) and two cup winners (1986 and 1987) in his new role . After this very successful decade, he moved to Montpellier Hérault SC in 1990 and to AS Nancy Lorraine in 1991 , before joining the French association FFF. In 1981 and 1984 he was voted Coach of the Year .

There he brought the experience of 560 first division matches as a coach with him, 330 of them (plus their 42 European Cup games at the time) with Bordeaux, 167 with Lyon, 38 with Nancy and 25 with Montpellier.

Association trainer

From 1992, Jacquet initially worked as a cotrainer for Gérard Houllier with the senior national team . From February 16, 1994 to July 12, 1998 he took over his office. His greatest success in this role was winning the 1998 World Cup . He has the best statistics of all French national coaches, because in the 53 games under his direction, the French team won 34 times, drew 16 times and lost just three games - all with a goal difference of 93:27. Nevertheless, Aimé Jacquet also went through the depths of the coaching profession in this role. At first his work was very criticized, only after the European Football Championship in England in 1996 , when his team was only eliminated on penalties against the Czech national football team, he was able to convince his skeptics.

At the World Cup in their own country, the French team was able to convincingly win the World Cup title over long stretches. Under Aimé Jacquet, the then 22-year-old Zinédine Zidane from Girondins Bordeaux made his debut in the national team in 1994 ; the novice managed to turn the 2-0 draw against the Czech Republic . Zidane formed an extraordinarily creative midfield axis with Youri Djorkaeff and became an undisputed and celebrated playmaker in the Jacquet era, even in the blue national jersey. In retrospect, the coach modestly described this as a “great stroke of luck to find such a generation of players”. In 1998 he was voted Coach of the Year for the third time.

After winning the world title, Jacquet moved to the post of technical director of the national team; his friend Roger Lemerre followed him in the dugout . Initially, Jacquet was by no means eager for such an official existence, but eventually allowed FFF President Claude Simonet to take him on. He used the new position, who was responsible for all national teams - including those of the youth and women - in order to improve the training of young players as much as possible, but also devoted himself intensively to the amateur area and coaching training.

During this time, further successes of the Equipe tricolore fall (European championship title 2000, winner of the confederation cup 2001 and 2003, runner-up world champion 2006), but also the slips at the 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championship , for which he emphasized his own responsibility as he never felt alone Father of the French victories. At the end of 2006, shortly after his 65th birthday, Aimé Jacquet resigned from this position. Didier Deschamps , meanwhile himself national and world champion coach (2018), appreciates two things about him: “He was never too sensitive to ask and take the advice of his experienced players. In addition, he always knew exactly what he was doing and why. ”And René Girard , also an association trainer under Jacquet, characterized him with the words:“ A simple friend in a complicated world ”.

Aimé Jacquet was voted the best French coach of the century in 2000, certainly also under the still fresh impression of the World Cup title - before Albert Batteux , who was Jacquet's coach in Saint-Étienne from 1967 to 1972.

successes

• French champion : eight titles, five as a player, three as a coach
• French cup winner : five titles, three as a player, two as a coach
• World Champion 1998 (as coach), Vice World Champion 2006 (as association manager)
• European Champion 2000 (as association manager)
• Confederation Cup Winner 2001 and 2003 (as association representative)
• French Coach of the Year: 1981, 1984, 1998
• French "20th century coach"

Honors

Aimé Jacquet became Chevalier in 1998 and Officier of the Legion of Honor in 2007 .

literature

• Aimé Jacquet: Let me pour one étoile. Robert Laffont / Plon, Paris 1999

Individual evidence

1. ^ France honors World Cup winners - Government gives Legion of Honor to players, coaches , CNN / SI . September 1, 1998. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2006.  
2. ↑ Décret du 13 July 1998 portant promotion et nomination . In: JORF . 1998, No. 161, July 14, 1998, p. 10831. PREX9801876D. Retrieved March 8, 2009.
3. ↑ Décret du 31 December 2006 portant promotion et nomination . In: JORF . 2007, No. 1, January 2, 2007, p. 8. PREX0609790D. Retrieved March 8, 2009.