Soon to be 57, Laurent Blanc has decided to dive back into the deep end of Ligue 1. Six years after his forced departure from PSG, with a unique experience of 13 months in the Qatar championship, the technician has accepted the challenge. proposed by Olympique Lyonnais, who sacked Peter Bosz on Sunday October 9. From the Girondins de Bordeaux to the France team, from PSG to Al-Rayyan, a look back at the atypical career of the “President”.
In Bordeaux, the advent of a novice
When he was appointed coach of the Girondins in 2007, with Jean-Louis Gasset as assistant who would accompany him everywhere to PSG, Laurent Blanc had no experience as number 1. The “President” inherited a solid workforce, that he sublimates and hoists, from his first season, as dolphin of Lyon. Rare for the time, OL had to wait until the last day to formalize their coronation in May 2008. Blanc may well have been named best coach in Ligue 1 during the UNFP trophies, but the best is yet to come.
Carried by a Yoann Gourcuff at the top of his game and by a final series of eleven victories in a row, the coach took an irresistible Bordeaux to the roof of Ligue 1. His third season, in 2009-10, started under the best auspices. At the truce, the Girondins are rushing towards a new title and have defeated Bayern and Juventus in the Champions League groups.
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Only, the crazy dynamic is brutally exhausted. The adventure in C1 ends, ironically, against OL at the gates of the semi-finals in April 2010. The fall is especially spectacular in the league: Bordeaux ends the season 6th, out of European places. The incessant rumors around the appointment of Blanc at the head of the Blues spoil his last months in Gironde.
Among the Blues, the evidence after Knysna
His divorce with the Girondins in no way hinders his meteoric progress: Laurent Blanc is the natural successor to Raymond Domenech at the head of the Blues. The native of Alès arrives in a stormy context. It is up to him to relieve a selection whose image has been tarnished by the extra-sporting affairs of the World Cup in South Africa. The new coach starts with two defeats against Norway and Belarus… before largely straightening the ship. Between September 2010 and Euro 2012, the Blues chained 23 games without defeat, in a period which saw Dimitri Payet and Olivier Giroud start in the selection.
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The first “post-Knysna” competition ended in elimination in the quarter-finals against the future double Spanish champion (2-0). If the Blues are doing rather well on the meadow, their image is again damaged by a gesture of humor addressed by Samir Nasri to a journalist. South Africa’s wounds have not – yet – healed. Earlier in his mandate, the “President” was himself singled out by Mediapart for having declared, in private, to be in favor of the establishment of quotas on racial criteria. He left the Blues after the Euro, June 30, 2012.
At PSG: the apotheosis for his return to the head of a club
A year after his departure from the selection, Laurent Blanc is back in business. An attractive style, national trophies in spades… He quickly imposed his mark on Paris Saint-Germain, when he arrived in the 2013 off-season, without pressure. “I arrived in Paris more than in last position, it was not expected. I said to myself: why not, you have nothing to lose, the people who took you took you a little by default, you have six months to prove that you can possibly do six more months”he explained to the microphone of beIN Sports.
His national statistics are telling. In three seasons on the bench of the capital club, the technician has won almost everything: 3 French championship titles and three League Cups (2014, 2015 and 2016), 2 French Cups (2015 and 2016), and 3 Champions Trophies (2013, 2014 and 2015). During the 2015-2016 season, PSG even achieved the record for points in a Ligue 1 season (96) to win the title. If everything succeeded for the former coach of the Girondins de Bordeaux at the national level, he failed to propel PSG into the last four in the Champions League. Three times, the club stopped in the quarter-finals, respectively eliminated by Chelsea (3-1, 0-2), FC Barcelona (1-3, 0-2) and Manchester City (2-2, 0- 1). He was fired on June 27, 2016.
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A six-year long desert crossing
After his forced departure from PSG, Laurent Blanc wanted to take a step back and moved away from the field. Announced in many clubs (Inter Milan, AS Rome, Fiorentina, Valencia, Manchester United …), the French technician no longer sits on a bench for four years. “I had offers from beautiful clubs. But I told myself that I needed to take a step back, to enjoy my family, to also take time for myself. These are acceptable arguments. But I finally wonder if the best solution is not to leave immediately. I could have done it. (…) I thought that one or two years of rest would give me the energy necessary to take up a big challenge. I I may have lacked lucidity about my situation at that time”he said in an interview with France Football in November 2018.
In Ligue 1, Laurent Blanc was also announced in Lyon at the end of 2019, but it was ultimately Rudi Garcia who landed the job in the Rhône. We have to wait until December 19, 2020 to see Laurent Blanc back on a bench, at Al Rayyan in Qatar. An adventure far from European lights which ends on February 13, when he was sacked by the Qatari club, after 19 victories in 51 games.