Pierre Pleimelding

Pierre Pleimelding (born September 19, 1952 in Laxou , † May 1, 2013 in Colmar ) was a French football player and coach .

As a player in the club

Beginnings under the direction of the father (until 1974)

The 181 centimeter tall striker Pleimelding, son of the former national player René Pleimelding (1925-1998), was a member of the youth department of AS Nancy , whose first team was coached by his father , towards the end of the 1960s . When his father René took over the second division team Troyes AF in 1970 , he was followed by both Pierre and his older brother Gérard Pleimelding (* 1949). From then on, Pierre, who was then just 18, regularly received his father's trust and in his first year made 15 appearances in a team that was only just able to avert relegation. René had to give up his office and went to the Alsatian amateur club SR Colmar , where Pierre then also moved.

The young player was able to establish himself at Colmar, but the dream of a long-term career as a professional seemed over during this time. But then he was very convincing playfully and especially as a goalscorer, whereupon he received an offer from the first division club AS Monaco in 1974 .

First division with Monaco and Lille (1974–1981)

After moving directly from the amateur camp to the top French league in the summer of 1974, the attacker initially only finished fourth in the ranking of strikers at Monaco behind Delio Onnis , Christian Dalger and Michel Rouquette , but was still very often involved. In terms of his goals, however, he was hardly able to convince in his years at Monaco, as he only scored eight times in three years. In 1976 he also had to accept relegation to the second division. This was followed by direct resurgence in 1977, but Pleimelding had no prospect of a permanent place in his team and therefore accepted a contract offer from the second division OSC Lille in the year of promotion .

At Lille, Pleimelding asserted himself against Luxembourg striker Gilbert Dussier and fought for a regular place alongside Žarko Olarević and Jean-Paul Delemer . At the same time, he was significantly more dangerous after his move, scored twelve times in the 1977/78 season and thereby made his contribution to the promotion to the first class. With the rise, the offensive department was reinforced by Roberto Cabral . The 1978/79 season was probably the best of his career for Pleimelding, as in addition to a sixth place in the table with Lille and an appointment to the national team, he also achieved the personal best of 21 goals in the league. He was able to build on that in 1980/81 when he scored 18 times, which was enough behind Delio Onnis and Erwin Kostedde to rank third in the goal scorer statistics. At the time, he was so undisputed that he hadn't missed a single game between 1979 and 1981. Despite everything, in 1981, at the height of his career, he decided to leave Lille and went abroad by signing with the Swiss NLA club Servette FC Genève .

Last years at various stations (1981–1985)

With Servette FC, he finished second in the final table of 1982 in the Swiss championship, but had only contributed nine goals to the team's good performance and thus remained a rather inconspicuous part of a strong offensive. In addition, there were problems with the local mentality, which led him to return to France after a year in Switzerland. He found a new employer in the second division AS Cannes , which was considered a candidate for promotion thanks to some big names. Ultimately, it was only enough for seventh place in the table in 1982/83 and Pleimelding was the team's top scorer with twelve goals, but a clear distance to his best years at Lille was noticeable.

In 1983 he moved to the also second-rate FC Mulhouse . In this he played regularly for a season, even if he only got two goals, and in 1984 learned from the newly hired coach Raymond Domenech that he was no longer planning with him. However, he was still in the squad until he ended his professional career in 1985 at the age of 32 after 157 first division games with 57 goals and 108 second division games with 31 goals in France and 27 first division games with nine goals in Switzerland.

National team

Pleimelding was 26 years old when he made his debut for the French national team in a 1-0 win over Spain on November 8, 1978 . He was in the starting line-up, remained without his own goal and was replaced in the 57th minute by Albert Gemmrich . The friendly game was the only match he was allowed to play for his country.

Coaching career

Immediately after the end of his professional career, Pleimelding went to the amateur club SAS Épinal in 1985 and took on a role as player-coach . In 1986 he gave up active play and from then on devoted himself only to coaching. He proved to be a successful coach, helped the team to rise to the second division in 1990 and held the class with her twice before he could no longer prevent relegation in 1993 and at the same time said goodbye to Épinal. In 1994 he got the coaching post with the Ivorian national team , took part with this in the 1996 African Cup, but the failure in the preliminary round cost him the job. He then returned to France, but found no job in the professional field and therefore coached the amateur club FCSR Haguenau . In 2003 he gave up the post and retired from football, except for a consultancy job at AS Sundhofen . Pleimelding died in 2013 at the age of 60 from complications from a heart attack.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Pierre Pleimelding ( Memento of May 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), afterfoot.fr
2. ↑ Pierre Pleimelding - Fiche de stats du joueur de football , pari-et-gagne.com
3. ↑ Joueur - Pierre PLEIMELDING , fff.fr
4. ↑ Football: Pierre Pleimelding , footballdatabase.eu
5. ↑ Décès de l'ex-footballeur Pleimelding , lefigaro.fr