Roger Lemerre

Roger Lemerre as coach of the Moroccan national team against Gabon on March 28, 2009

Roger Lemerre (born June 18, 1941 in Bricquebec , Department Manche ) is a former French football player and since 1975 football coach . From 1998 to 2002 he was the head coach of the French national team , with whom he won the European title in 2000 . He was also the coach of Tunisia from 2002 to 2008 and the coach of Morocco in 2008/09 .

Player career

His football career began in 1961 at UA Sedan-Torcy , where Lemerre, who had been retrained from center forward to head of defense, was under contract until 1969. Then he moved to FC Nantes and played there for two years. 1971 to 1973 he wore the AS Nancy jersey and from 1973 to the end of his career as a player (1975) that of the RC Lens . He played 444 games in Division 1 in France. However , he could never win a championship title ; his greatest success as a player was reaching the French Cup finals in 1965 and 1970. He was also three times (1965/66, 1967/68 and 1968/69) winner of the Étoile d'Or as the season's best player in France's top division.

Roger Lemerre played six times for the French national football team between September 1968 and April 1971 . On his debut - a 1-1 draw against Germany in Marseille - there was another newcomer to the Equipe tricolore : Aimé Jacquet , whom he was to replace almost exactly 30 years later as coach of the same national team.

Coaching career

1975 began his coaching career at Red Star Paris (1975-1978), then he coached one season with RC Lens and two with Paris FC . 1983 to 1984 he coached the most successful football club in Tunisia, the capital city club Espérance Sportive de Tunis . After returning to France, he trained again for Red Star.

He was then a member of the national team's coaching staff from 1986 to December 1997. He took over the military team in the association. France won the 1995 Military World Cup in Iran.

From March to May 1997 Roger Lemerre trained again with the RC Lens. He took unpaid leave from the association and saved his home club Lens, which had slipped to the bottom of the table, from relegation to the first division. Then in January of the following year Kotrainer of the national team of France.

From July 1998 Roger Lemerre inherited the successful national coach of the national soccer team , Aimé Jacquet , who had just won the 1998 World Cup . He led the team to win the European Football Championship in 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium, won the Confederations Cup in 2001 , but failed with his team in the preliminary round at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. After the embarrassment at the World Cup, in which France as favorites and defending champions were eliminated without a win or goalless, he was criticized from all sides. He criticized his military leadership style, his lack of tactical flexibility and his alleged coldness. The association waited three weeks for Lemerre to resign from the post of national coach, but when he did not respond, he was fired.

From September 24, 2002 to February 2008, Lemerre was the coach of the Tunisian national team . He was the fifth coach of the North Africans in 13 months. Lemerre rebuilt the team after a mixed World Cup and won the 2004 African Championship . His contract was extended to 2006 after winning the African Cup. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali appointed him Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit .

In qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Tunisian team, under his leadership, secured participation in the tournament as group winners. There, the North Africans were eliminated with just one point from three games after the preliminary round. From July 1, 2008 to July 2009, he was in charge of the Moroccan national team as the successor to Henri Michel . Since December 2009 he has headed the Turkish team MKE Ankaragücü .

Web links

• FIFA to Lemerre in Tunisia
• FIFA on Lemerre's career