Stéphane Grégoire
Stéphane Grégoire (born February 2, 1968 in Thouars ) is a former French football player and later coach . After he made the leap into professional football at the age of 29, he spent ten years in the top two leagues in France until 2007.
Player career
Time as an amateur (until 1997)
As a youth, Grégoire began playing football at a small club from Bressuire in his home region in the west of France. From 1984 he wore the jersey of the CS Cheminots Thouars and achieved admission to the first team, for which he was mostly used in defense . In 1994 he was promoted to the third highest division, which, however, still belonged to the amateur area. At that time, Grégoire was also active in the youth sector. In 1996 there was an important turning point in his career when he surprisingly signed a professional contract with the first division club Stade Rennes , which began the following year .
Breakthrough at the first division club Rennes (1997-2002)
For the 1997/98 season, the 29-year-old player moved up to the Rennes squad, making him a professional at an extraordinarily old age. On August 2, 1997, he made his debut in a 0-1 defeat against Toulouse FC in the top division of the country. In the defensive midfield , the newcomer fought for a regular place and mostly played alongside Yoann Bigné . From a sporting point of view, the largely newly formed team had to fight relegation and at the end of its first season only just managed to stay in league. Subsequently, a new coach, Paul Le Guen, was hired , who entrusted Grégoire with the position of team captain. Under him, Rennes finished fifth in the table in 1999. The resulting opportunity to qualify for the European competition via the Intertoto Cup was ultimately not used.
The following years in the league were changeable with regard to the performance of the team. For Grégoire, the high number of competitors for a regular place was a problem from the 2000/01 season, which is why he was no longer an undisputed part of the team despite regular appearances. After Christian Gourcuff took over as coach in 2001, it became even more difficult for the then 33-year-old player to assert himself. Because of this, he left Rennes in the summer of 2002 after five years and signed with AC Ajaccio, which also belongs to the first division .
Last professional years in Ajaccio and Dijon (2002-2007)
At Ajaccio from the island of Corsica he was able to take a regular place despite his relatively old age and had to fight with his team against relegation from the top division. After relegation had been successful twice, he moved to the second division FCO Dijon in the run-up to the 2004/05 season . There, too, he was usually part of the first team and always placed himself in the upper half of the table with his colleagues, but without being able to make promotion. In 2007, at the age of 39, he ended his active career after 218 first division games with eleven goals and 91 second division games with three goals.
Coaching career
Immediately after the end of his career as a player, Grégoire returned to the amateur field in 2007 to carry out the profession of coach at the fourth division US Orléans . He held this post for two years. From 2010 to 2014 he coached the first team of the lower class club USM Saran .
Web links
- Stéphane Grégoire in the database of transfermarkt.de
- Stéphane Grégoire in the database of weltfussball.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b L'efficacité discrète de Stéphane Grégoire , stade-rennais-online.com
- ↑ a b Stéphane Grégoire - Fiche et statistiques , stade-rennais-online.com
- ↑ Football: Stéphane Grégoire , footballdatabase.eu
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grégoire, Stéphane |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French soccer player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd February 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Thouars , France |