rescue of Saint-Etienne, champion with Lille, European failures… The career of the French coach with Ligue 1 clubs

His name had been coming up for several weeks. Christophe Galtier was officially appointed, Tuesday, July 5, coach of Paris Saint-Germain. His service record, but also his ability to remobilize teams in crisis seduced the Parisian leaders.

Champion of France with Lille in 2021 ahead of PSG, and finalist of the Coupe de France this year with Nice, the 55-year-old technician already has good lines to his credit as a coach, but has also experienced failures. Franceinfo: sport looks back on the major moments in the career of “Galette”.

Saint-Etienne: rescue in the league…

When Christophe Galtier took over Saint-Etienne in December 2009, the Greens were on the edge of the abyss (17th in the league). For his first coaching job, the native of Marseille faces a major challenge.

A year earlier, after the dismissal of Laurent Roussey, Alain Perrin has been appointed coach of ASSE, with Christophe Galtier as assistant. But the green ship continues to rock dangerously in the depths of the ranking. Hesitant at first, Galtier finally agrees to become the cfifth coach of the Greens since their return to Ligue 1 in 2004.

Despite a complicated context, against a backdrop of club restructuring and financial crisis, he managed to remobilize his troops. Once again, Saint-Etienne narrowly escaped.

The following season, between departures and arrivals, he relied on a revamped team which quickly returned to good results. The club took the lead in the championship for three days before finishing in 10th place. The Greens are still progressing during the 2011/2012 season with a 7th place. On the strength of this revival, Christophe Galtier is extended until 2014.

… and victory in the Coupe de la Ligue

Bringing stability to the Stéphanois, Galtier sees his work bear fruit. Fifth in the French championship in 2013, ASSE narrowly missed qualifying for the Champions League. But the Greens are still smiling. The same year, they won the Coupe de la Ligue against Rennes (1-0), after victories over PSG and Lille in the previous rounds. This title is Saint-Etienne’s first for 32 years.

Christophe Galtier also allows the club to qualify for the Europa League during the 2013-2014 season, a first since 2009. Extended until 2016, Galtier is elected in 2013 best coach of the year at the UNFP trophies. He shares this award with his Parisian counterpart, Carlo Ancelotti.

“Galette” continues its momentum in the championship. Saint-Etienne placed fourth, fifth and sixth in the following three seasons. On the European side, on the other hand, the Greens dream little, reaching the knockout stages in the Europa League twice.

Only eighth in Ligue 1 with his team, Christophe Galtier left the Greens at the end of the 2016-2017 season.

Lille: feat in L1, nothing famous in the European Cup

With his status acquired with the Greens, Christophe Galtier signed at Losc in December 2017. Again he recovered a club in bad shape. Gérard Lopez’s Dogues are installed in 18th place.

While the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) prohibits Lille from recruiting during the winter transfer window, Christophe Galtier does little better than his predecessor, Marcelo Bielsa. However, it allows the Northerners to narrowly avoid relegation.

As in Saint-Etienne, once the inventory has been carried out, the Galtier touch produces its results. From the 2018-2019 season, Losc finished second in the championship. Galtier knows how to highlight the nuggets recruited by the Portuguese Luis Campos. He was elected best French coach of the year 2019 by the weekly France Soccer.

At the foot of the podium the following season, Lille then achieved the feat of winning the championship in 2021 for the fourth time in its history, with a point ahead of PSG, ten years after its last coronation.

If the results are excellent at the national level, the results remain more mixed in the European Cup. In the Champions League, the step is too high in 2020 (one point in six games). The following year in the Europa League, Lille came up against Ajax in the round of 16. Despite the title of champion of France, Christophe Galtier leaves the North at the end of the season.

Nice: express passage with mixed results

Before arriving on the Paris bench, Christophe Galtier stayed a year at OGC Nice. His mission: to turn the club, taken over by Ineos in 2019, on a course. He takes his players to the final of the Coupe de France, which the club had not reached since 1997. After a lackluster match, Nantes deprived of victory.

In the league, Nice ends the 2022 season in fifth place and snatches its ticket for the Europa League conference. The club’s director, Julien Fournier, is not satisfied with these results, nor with the way. “Christophe Galtier was extremely successful in Lille. As it happens to some players too, he was less successful at home”, he told the newspaper The Team (article for subscribers), June 9.

By joining Paris, Christophe Galtier knows that the club of the capital only dreams of one thing: the Champions League. But his results do not speak for him on the European scene. If he does not arrive in unknown territory, since he finds Luis Campos, the 55-year-old coach faces the biggest challenge of his career.