Rémi Guard

Rémi Guard
Rémi Garde in August 2011
Personnel
birthday	April 3, 1966
place of birth	L'Arbresle ,  France
size	175 cm
position	Vorstopper , midfielder (defensive)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1984-1993	Olympique Lyon	146 (21)
1993-1996	Racing Strasbourg	68 0(3)
1996-1999	Arsenal FC	31 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1990-1992	France	6 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2011-2014	Olympique Lyon
2015-2016	Aston Villa
2017-2019	Montreal Impact
1 Only league games are given.

Rémi Garde (born April 3, 1966 in L'Arbresle ) is a French football coach and former player. As a midfielder who mostly played a defensive role , the six-time French international spent the most successful time in sport at his home club Olympique Lyon . During his last professional stint at Arsenal FC , he won his only major title with the English championship .

Player career

In the club

Olympique Lyon (1984-1993)

Rémi Garde, who was born about 25 kilometers northwest of Lyon in L'Arbresle , learned to play football in the youth academy of Olympique Lyon (OL) . He made his debut at the age of 18 in the second-class D2 under the then orienteering coach Robert Herbin , but then stagnated in his further sporting development, since Herbin's successor Robert Nouzaret had no use for him in the first team.

It was only the arrival of Raymond Domenech and his installation as the new sporting director that sparked Gardes career. Within a year, Domenech Olympique Lyon led to promotion to the top French league through the second division championship in 1989 and, in addition to newcomers such as Eugène Kabongo or Claudio García , particularly built on the club's own talents. The midfielder Garde benefited from this in particular and was used in 32 league games in the 1988/89 season. Pascal Fugier , Bruno Génésio and Garde became the new backbone of Olympique Lyon and the Guards, who were “working” in defensive midfield, in particular became Domenech's extended arm and captain.

Despite a disastrous start to the 1989/90 season, Garde acclimatized with Olympique Lyon at the highest national level, and the team finished in a respectable eighth place in the table. Just one year later, OL reached fifth place and qualified for the UEFA Cup . At the same time, however, the first signs of physical problems were observed at Garde, which began to manifest themselves at the latest in the 1991/92 season. The reason for this was the exhausting game in the center, in which Garde constantly wore themselves out in defensive work, which in turn prompted Domenech to redefine the distribution of tasks and, above all, to take more responsibility for physically robust defenders like Bruno N'Gotty . Regardless of this, Garde continued to provide highlights and scored the only goal to win 1-0 in OL's first European Cup appearance in 16 years against the Swedish Östers Växjö . The second leg ended with 1: 1, and in the following second round the club failed on Turkish representative Trabzonspor .

The last two years up to the end of the 1992/93 season were disappointing for OL in the league, which was reflected in 16th and 13th place in the respective final table. A lack of fighting spirit in midfield and the lack of a leadership figure were also blamed for this, and overall the signs were for change. Domenech finally threw in the towel and with successor and newcomer to coach Jean Tigana , the club started to rebuild. While numerous top-class players such as Manuel Amoros , Pascal Olmeta , Abédi Pelé and Éric Roy were committed, Garde decided to move to Racing Strasbourg , where he had been promised a regular place in defensive midfield.

Racing Strasbourg (1993–1996)

Due to injury concerns, Garde only got used to the new club very slowly. The performances did not show the level demonstrated especially at the beginning of the decade and in the end the statistics recorded only 21 league appearances in the 1993/94 season. In his second year in Strasbourg, Gardes form curve showed clearly upwards. He harmonized well in midfield with Franck Sauzée and in May 1995 he was with the Alsatians in the cup final , which was lost 1-0 to Paris Saint-Germain . The wounds returned in the 1995/96 season and so the third year Gardes last stayed in Strasbourg. After only 16 league appearances, he left the club and joined Arsenal in England in August 1996 , where his compatriot Arsène Wenger had just taken over the sporting leadership.

Arsenal FC (1996-1999)

Wenger immediately handed over the captaincy to Garde and at the same time made him the first foreign team captain in the history of Arsenal FC. Garde then also showed his skills in passing and tackling strength, but the old injury problems finally caught up with him on the island, so that he was only allowed eleven competitive games, of which he was only in seven starting formations. Players like Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit had also developed decisive advantages in his position. In the 1997/98 season, the Gunners won the " double " from the English championship and FA Cup and the Guard completed ten league games (mostly in the right midfield), which corresponded to the minimum number for receiving a championship medal. He contributed marginally to the cup win with only one game and the thought of retiring and a new coaching career in Marseille was already maturing in him. After careful consideration, he was convinced of another one-year contract and although he was plagued by Pfeiffer's glandular fever during the 1998/99 season , he showed himself to be reliable in his rare missions. In the game against Chelsea (1-0) at the end of January 1999, numerous newspapers even voted him the “Man of the Match”. Less than a month later he played his last competitive game in Newcastle (1-1) before letting his contract run out in the summer of 1999 and stepping down from active sport.

In the national team

After his promotion to the leading player at Olympique Lyon and the confirmation of his performance in the top French division in the 1989/90 season, Michel Platini invited him to the French senior team for the first time in January 1990 on the occasion of a friendly trip to Kuwait . In the game against the desert state, which ended on January 21, 1990 with a 1-0 victory for the "Equipe tricolore", Garde was in midfield alongside Bernard Pardo , Marcel Dib and Laurent Blanc in the starting line-up. In the same place, he played two more international matches against the GDR (3: 0) and the eventual world champions from (West) Germany (2: 1) within the following week , although he played against East Germany for tactical reasons (midfield total " too defensive ”) only came on after an hour for Jean-Marc Ferreri .

After the Kuwait trip, Gardes international appearances were rare. Between August 1991 and May 1992 he played three more games in Sweden in the run-up to Euro 1992 , including his first and only competitive game against Spain (2-1). With Didier Deschamps , returnees Luis Fernández and Franck Sauzée , the competition in his position was ultimately too great. Although Garde was in the French EM squad , he remained without a minute in the course of the finals.

Coaching career

Olympique Lyon

After working for the French pay-TV channel Canal + , Garde started his first coaching activity in 2003. As assistant to Paul Le Guen returned to his home club Olympique Lyon and kept this position after the coaching change to Gérard Houllier two years later, while he was working on his coaching certificates. When Alain Perrin , another head coach, was hired in Lyon in 2007 , Garde switched to the club's scouting team. At the beginning of the 2010/11 season, President Jean-Michel Aulas appointed him head of the training center and just under a year later he became the first team coach in June 2011 as the successor to Claude Puel himself.

During Garde's three-year tenure as head coach, Olympique Lyon consistently placed in the top five of Ligue 1 . At the end of the 2013/14 season, Garde resigned from his post, stating personal and family reasons.

Aston Villa

On November 2, 2015, Rémi Garde signed a contract with the English club Aston Villa until June 2019. The team was at the bottom of the Premier League table at that time . Under Gardes direction, however, there was no decisive improvement and the bottom of the league was separated again at the end of March 2016.

Impact de Montréal FC

In November 2017, he became the head coach of Impact de Montréal FC in Major League Soccer .

Title / Awards

• English Championship (1): 1998

Web links

• Rémi Garde (player profile) in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Rémi Garde (Trainer Profile) in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Portrait of Rémi Garde ( Memento from January 2, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
• French Football Association data sheet
• Statistical data from Footballdatabase.eu

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 104 .
2. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 110 .
3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 114 .
4. ↑ Zeit Online: "Coach Guard leaves Olympique Lyon at the end of the season"
5. ↑ Südwest Presse: "French Guard is Aston Villa's new 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.  
6. ↑ "Club statement: Rémi Garde" (avfc.co.uk)
7. ↑ https://www.foot01.com/equipe/ol/officiel-remi-garde-entraineur-de-l-impact-montreal,265737