Pierre Cahuzac

Pierre Cahuzac
Pierre Cahuzac in 1978
Personnel
birthday	July 3, 1927
place of birth	Saint-Pons-de-Thomières ,  France
date of death	August 31, 2003
Place of death	Lempaut ,  France
size	177 cm
position	midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1951-1952	AS Béziers	33 0(3)
1952-1961	Toulouse FC	282 (17)
1961-1971	Gazélec FC Ajaccio
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1957	France	2 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1961-1971	GFC Ajaccio
1971-1979	SEC Bastia
1979-1984	Toulouse FC
1984-1985	Olympique Marseille
1 Only league games are given.

Pierre Cahuzac (born July 3, 1927 in Saint-Pons-de-Thomières , † August 31, 2003 in Lempaut ) was a French football player and coach .

Club career

Started at Béziers and spent time in Toulouse (1951–1961)

In the post-war period, the midfielder Cahuzac belonged to the team of the amateur club US Labastide-Rouairoux , rose with this in 1949 to the regional third division and in 1951 moved from there to the second division AS Béziers . A little later, the then 24-year-old made his debut in professional football and immediately became a regular in the second division team. Through his achievements he aroused the interest of league rivals FC Toulouse , who signed him in 1952. At Toulouse he was also an integral part of the first team and won the second division championship with them in 1953, which also brought promotion to the top division with it. He was then able to maintain his regular place and was immediately fourth with the promoted team at the end of the 1953/54 season. The following year Toulouse was even runner-up.

With the move into the national cup final in 1957 , a possible first title win after the second division championship was imminent for the 29 year old Cahuzac. He played in the final, experienced a 6: 3 win against SCO Angers and was able to celebrate winning the trophy. His 30th birthday followed shortly afterwards, but in the following years despite his relatively old age he stayed firmly in a team that mostly found himself in the middle of the table. In 1961 he temporarily ended his professional career and went to third division club Gazélec FC Ajaccio , where he got a job as a player-coach.

Player-coach at Gazélec Ajaccio (1961–1971)

Cahuzac was 34 years old when he arrived in Ajaccio, Corsica in 1961 and began his coaching work, where he was still a regular player on the field. He also played the role of team captain on the field. Despite this dual role, he was extremely successful, which was particularly evident in 1968. First he reached the last sixteen of the cup with the team and eliminated the first-class city rivals AC Ajaccio with a 1-0 replay on the way there . Then succeeded in the summer of the same year promotion to the second division, even if Gazélec then took part in the professional league under amateur conditions. Shortly afterwards he made his comeback as a player, because despite his 41st birthday in the promotion year he still regularly laced his football boots himself.

In 1969, 1970 and 1971 he held the class with the team. In 1969 he integrated his son Claude Cahuzac (1951–2012) into the second division team and over time built him up to become a regular player. Claude stayed with Gazélec even after his father left and had 108 second division games by 1978. Since Pierre was also still a player, the situation arose that father and son were teammates, even though Claude was only born shortly after his father's career began.

Although the start of the 1971/72 season was weak and ultimately led to the relegation of Gazélecs at the end of the season, Cahuzac had drawn other clubs to the attention of his performances and was in December 1971 at the first division club SEC Bastia, also based in Corsica, as the successor to coach Jean Vincent set. However, this also meant that he had to end his active career after 254 first division games with 15 goals and 94 second division games with seven goals. Although he rarely played as a player in the 1970s, he had been on the pitch shortly before, despite his age of 44, making him one of the oldest players in the history of France's top two leagues.

Start coach in Bastia (1971–1979)

When he came to Bastia in December 1971, the club was near the relegation zone. However, this danger could be averted and the season ended in sixth place in the table. In addition, they made it to the national cup final in 1972 , in which the Elf Marseille were defeated 1: 2. Despite the defeat, she qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup 1972/73 , but was eliminated there in the first round. In the following years, Cahuzac built a team that settled in the top half of the table and in 1977 reached a third place qualifying for the 1977/78 UEFA Cup . For his services he was named French football coach of the year in 1977 . The team went into the European competition as an outsider, but already recorded an important success in the first round with two wins and advancement against Sporting Lisbon . Then Newcastle United , Turin Calcio and FC Carl Zeiss Jena were eliminated one after the other , so that it was against the Grasshopper Club Zurich for a place in the final. Thanks to the away goals rule, Bastia prevailed and faced PSV Eindhoven in front of a home crowd for the first leg of the final on April 26, 1978 . Due to the 0-0, all options remained open, but a 0-3 in the second leg ended the Corsican's title dreams. Nevertheless, reaching the final is probably the most important success in the history of the SEC Bastia. The basis for success was a consistent offensive game, through which the team always scored at least two goals on the way to the final and almost always conceded one goal. In addition, the admission of young players to the team was rated as exemplary.

In the 1978/79 season Bastia could not build on the previous and was with table rank fourteen not far from the relegation zone. In the summer of 1979, the 18 years that Cahuzac had spent with Ajaccio and Bastia in Corsica ended and he returned to his former employer, Toulouse.

Final coaching years (1979–1985)

The FC Tolouse, which has since slipped into the second division, relied on a coach from 1979 who had already been promoted to the top division as a player with the team. After two unsuccessful attempts, which in 1981 only failed in the relegation round, Cahuzac led the southern French back to first class in 1982. This was followed by relegation before the team in 1983/84 even played close to the top of the table. In January 1984, however, he gave up the office.

His last position as coach was the first division team Olympique Marseille , where he worked from October 1984 as the successor to Roland Gransart . With the promoted team he was only just able to avoid relegation in the 1984/85 season, whereupon he gave up his pot. The last time he sat on the bench was on May 28, 1985 in a 2-0 defeat by FC Sochaux . For the then 57-year-old, his commitment in Marseille and his coaching career ended at the same time. During the entire course of his playing and coaching career, he took part in 631 top division games and completed a total of more than 1200 competitive games, in which he was involved either as a player, coach or in a dual role as player-coach.

National team

Cahuzac was already 30 years old when he made his debut in the shirt of the French national team on October 6, 1957 in a 2-0 defeat in a friendly against Hungary . On December 25th of the same year he ran in a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria for the second and last time for the French, as he was not considered for the upcoming 1958 World Cup and then no longer made it to the national team.

Public recognition and aftermath

Pierre Cahuzac died in 2003 at the age of 76. Due to the move into the European Cup final, to which he made a significant contribution as a coach, he has remained very popular with his former employer, later renamed SC Bastia , after his death. In December 2005, two years after his death, the east stand (2990 seats) of the Stade Armand Cesari in Bastia was named after him. In Toulouse, an amateur sports facility was named Stade Pierre Cahuzac . In 2005, his grandson Yannick Cahuzac (* 1985) made the leap into the professional team at SC Bastia and later led them as captain.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pierre CAHUZAC , om1899.com
2. ↑ Pierre Cahuzac , national-football-teams.com
3. ↑ En 1968, Ajaccio éliminait Ajaccio ( Memento of the original from June 28, 2013 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. , uneautrehistoiredufoot.blogs.lequipe.fr 
4. ↑ PIERRE CAHUZAC ET SON FILS CLAUDE , omgaz.skyrock.com
5. ↑ Football: Claude Cahuzac , footballdatabase.eu
6. ↑ Show the flag, DER SPIEGEL 15/1978 , spiegel.de
7. ↑ Pierre CAHUZAC , omstatsclub.com
8. ↑ Pierre Cahuzac - Fiche de stats du joueur de football , pari-et-gagne.com
9. ↑ Football: Pierre Cahuzac , footballdatabase.eu
10. ↑ Joueur - Pierre CAHUZAC , fff.fr
11. ^ Stade Armand-Cesari (Furiani) , spiritu-turchinu.com
12. ↑ Infrastructures du club ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2012 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. , toulousestjofootball.eu