Henri Michel (soccer player)

Henri Michel (born October 28, 1947 in Aix-en-Provence ; † April 24, 2018 there ) was a French football player and coach.

Career as a player

In the club

Michel, who emerged from AS Aix , began his professional career in 1966 at FC Nantes , to which the midfielder , who later also played in the libero position , remained loyal to the end of his career in 1982 and with whom he was three times French champion (1973, 1977 and 1980 ) and was once a cup winner (1979). He won the Étoile d'Or as the most consistent player in France's Division 1 in 1972/73 . With 532 first division appearances, he is one of the record players in France .

In the national team

Between September 1967 and October 1980 he was appointed to the French national football team 58 times ; he scored four goals and was team captain in ten games. In the 1970s he was the great midfield strategist who took part in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina with the Bleus , when the young Michel Platini was already able to show that he would be his successor.

Coaching

After finishing his active career in 1982 he became assistant to the French national coach Michel Hidalgo and in 1984, after winning the European Championship by the Equipe Tricolore , his successor. Before the first international match of the senior national team he was in charge of, Michel had won the gold medal as the person primarily responsible for the Olympic team in Los Angeles . With the senior national team he qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and came third here. On the other hand, the qualification for the European Football Championship in Germany in 1988 was less successful , and after only two games in the World Cup qualification for the 1990 World Cup , he resigned from his position. His successor, this time as coach, was again Michel Platini.

As a club coach, he tried only once in the 1990/91 season at Paris Saint-Germain , where he followed Tomislav Ivić . As national coach of Cameroon he took part in the soccer world championship in 1994 in the USA and as national coach of Morocco in the soccer world championship in 1998 in France . From 2004 to 2006, Henri Michel was the national coach of the Ivory Coast with whom he qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. This was the first time that Ivory Coast took part in a World Cup finals - for Henri Michel, however, it was already the fifth participation with four different national teams. After being eliminated in the preliminary round, his contract as national coach for the Ivory Coast ended. At the beginning of the 2006/07 season he was the head coach of Al Arabi in Qatar . In August 2007 he again took over the Moroccan national team , with whom he achieved a respectable success in November of that year at 2-2 at the Stade de France against the Équipe tricolore ; however, Roger Lemerre replaced him in this role in the summer of 2008 . This was his last position as national coach until then. Up to this point he had coached the national teams of six different countries in 160 games and was 9th among the national coaches with at least 100 international matches . In late August 2009, he signed a one-year contract with the Egyptian first division club Az-Zamalik . However, he was released in late November 2009 after four league defeats in a row. Most recently, he was national coach of the national team of Equatorial Guinea . He resigned from this office in December 2011. At the end of August 2012 he was named national coach of Kenya , but already ended his activity in December because "he could not agree on a contract with the FKF association ".

He was the coach in charge of a total of 176 senior international matches for these national teams. This places him among the top 20 in his field in the international "Hundreds Club" .

Private life

Michel was married to a Lebanese woman. He lived in Beirut and Aix-en-Provence.

Web links

• Henri Michel - International Matches as Coach

Individual evidence

1. ^ Décès d'Henri Michel, ex joueur et sélectionneur de l'équipe de France. In: lefigaro.fr. April 24, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018 (French). 
2. ↑ Paulo takes over for Michel at Equatorial Guinea on www.kicker.de from January 4, 2012, accessed on January 4, 2012
3. ↑ fifa.com: Michel is the new Kenyan national coach  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Michel throws down as national coach ( memento from April 9, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )