Georges Boulogne

Georges Boulogne (born July 1, 1917 in Haillicourt , Pas-de-Calais department , † August 24, 1999 ) was a French football coach and official who was in charge of the French national team from March 1969 to May 1973 .

Trainer

Georges Boulogne had played football himself as an amateur in Amboise . After the Second World War , he first coached several club teams, including CO Saint-Dizier and FC Mulhouse , before he began to perform various tasks in the French football association FFF . From 1958 he worked there in coach training and was also successively responsible for the youth, amateur and B national teams. In early 1969, he succeeded Louis Dugauguez as head coach (sélectionneur-entraîneur) of the French national team.

The first game of the Équipe tricolore under Boulognes leadership ended with a 0-5 defeat at Wembley . With 15 wins, five draws and eleven defeats, his international match record was rather modest; During this time France missed the qualification for the finals of the 1970 World Cup (group runner-up behind Sweden ), the 1972 European Championship (third behind Hungary and Bulgaria ) and the 1974 World Cup (again only third - in a group of three - behind the USSR and Ireland ). France's last game of the World Cup qualification (0-2 in Moscow ) was also the last of the coach, whom tefan Kovács replaced. Against teams from German-speaking countries there were also only defeats under Boulogne (1: 2 in Switzerland and 0: 1 in Austria , both in 1970).

Association official

As early as 1970, during his coaching work for les Bleus , he became Directeur Technique National of the FFF and remained in this newly created, influential position until 1982, in which he made a name for himself as a innovator of French football. Among other things, Boulogne reformed the training of coaches, implemented the introduction of youth centers (centers de formation) in all professional clubs, organized regular training courses for young players in all regions and introduced the national cup competitions for children's (minimes) and student teams (cadets) . He is considered to be one of the leading "fathers of the INF talent factory in Clairefontaine ". He has also published books on training theory, the best-known of which is “Le Guide pratique du football” (co- authored with Roland Chatard and Michel Hidalgo in 1977 ).

The AC Amboise stadium is now called the Stade Georges-Boulogne . In addition, the clubs throughout France organize the Journée Georges Boulogne on an autumn day every year , at which the youngest footballers (poussins) present themselves.

literature

• L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0

Remarks

1. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, pp. 328–331.
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ http://france.stades.free.fr/SITE/DISTRICTS/INDRE_ET_LOIRE/AMBOISE%20Boulogne/amboise_boulogne.htm ( Memento of September 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

• Data sheet with photo on the website of the French Association