Robert Herbin

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Robert Herbin (1979)

Robert Herbin (born March 30, 1939 in Paris , † April 27, 2020 in Saint-Étienne ) was a French football player and coach .

Player career

In the club

From 1953 to 1957 Herbin played at Cavigal Nice . He became a professional at the age of eighteen (1957) at AS Saint-Étienne - and his signature at OGC Nice was actually just a matter of form. But coach Jean Snella and longtime talent scout Pierre Garonnaire convinced Herbins parents that young players at the Verts (“The Greens” is the name of ASSE because of their club colors throughout France) do not automatically have to sit on the bench; Robert's mother decided with the words “Tu seras un Vert, Roby!” (“You will be a green one!”) that her son should move to Saint-Étienne. The 1.79 meter tall and 74 kg heavy middle runner was in fact immediately a regular for the Stéphanois and remained that for 15 years until 1972. During this time he won five championship titles (between 1964 and 1970) and three times the French Cup . In addition, as a player and coach at ASSE, he was able to look back on 47 European Cup games; Herbin also ran into the 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in October 1969. In 1966 he was the second best league scorer with 26 hits .

His last game for AS Saint-Étienne in Division 1 , however, he did not complete until 1975, when he had long been the club's coach: before the last day of the season - the club was already the champions - he was persuaded by his players to wear a green jersey once. The regular libero Christian Lopez willingly gave up his place for the obviously very popular coach, and Herbin not only played through the 90 minutes, but he also scored the last goal in the 5-1 at home Stade Geoffroy-Guichard against AC Troyes . So he was able to add a late sixth to his five league titles as a player.

In the national team

Between July 1960 and October 1968 Robert Herbin made 23 appearances for the French national football team and scored three goals. Five times he led Les Bleus into the stadium as captain. His first international match was the semi-finals at the European Football Championship in 1960 in his own country; he also took part in the 1966 World Cup in England (2 appearances). Since he was relatively prone to injury, especially repeatedly having problems with his knee, he ended his career in the Equipe Tricolore in 1968.

Coaching career

At the end of the 1971/72 season, long-time coach Albert Batteux left the AS Saint-Étienne club. Club president Roger Rocher appointed the team's captain, Robert Herbin, as coach at the age of 33, and he stayed that way until January 1983, winning four French championship and three cup titles in this role and standing with his players on May 12, 1976 Glasgow's Hampden Park in the final of the European Cup , but the ASSE then lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich. In 1973 and 1976 he was named Coach of the Year .

After more than a quarter of a century at Saint-Étienne, Herbin followed - not voluntarily: the new president dismissed him - the calls of other clubs and briefly trained Olympique Lyon , Al-Nasser Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Racing Strasbourg and Red Star Paris - only around 1987 return to the Loire and train the AS for another three years. And in 1997/98 he looked after les Verts for a third and last time together with Pierre Repellini . His mother was right: he had actually become “a green man” - with skin and hair.

Herbin almost always appeared cautious on the bench; His facial expression rarely indicated his emotional state, which earned him the nickname “the Sphinx ” early on . His press conferences became legendary. For many years, he stereotypically responded to journalists' questions, which he considered to be technically inadequate or characterized by ignorance, with the sentence “If you see it that way” and turned to the next questioner.

Most recently he lived in L'Étrat in the Loire department ; he was still actively involved in football insofar as he had a seat and vote in the Federal Council of the French association FFF. Herbin died in Saint-Étienne in April 2020 at the age of 81 of heart and pulmonary complications, which, however, were not related to the COVID-19 pandemic , which was rampant at the time of his death .

Palmarès

Robert Herbin has won nine of the ten national championship titles as a player and coach, making the club still the French record champions in 2020, as well as all six trophies (Coupe de France) for AS Saint-Étienne ; that too is a record.

Success as a player

Success as a trainer

literature

  • Christophe Barge / Laurent Tranier: Vert passion. Les plus belles histoires de l'AS Saint-Étienne. Timée, Boulogne 2004 ISBN 2-915586-04-7
  • Paul Bonnetain / Claude Chevally: Robert Herbin. Le football, mot à maux. Gérard Tisserand De Borées / Thoba's, Romagnat / Roanne 2004 ISBN 2-84494-292-X
  • France Football: Saint-Etienne. Special - Clubs de legend, 2008
  • Frédéric Parmentier: AS Saint-Étienne, histoire d'une légende. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2004 ISBN 2-911698-31-2

Remarks

  1. ↑ “Puisque vous le dites.” In: France Football of June 23, 2009, p. 19.
  2. ^ Non, Robert Herbin n'a pas été emporté par le Covid-19. In: nicematin.com . April 28, 2020, accessed April 28, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Herbin, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 2020
Place of death Saint-Etienne