 Le Guen managingParis Saint-Germain in 2009 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul Joseph Marie Le Guen[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1964-03-01)1 March 1964 (age 61)[2] | ||
| Place of birth | Pencran, Finistère, France | ||
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[3] | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1971–1977 | GA Landerneau | ||
| 1977–1982 | US Pencran | ||
| 1982–1983 | AS Brest | ||
| 1983–1984 | Brest | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1984–1989 | Brest | 120 | (4) |
| 1989–1991 | Nantes | 76 | (1) |
| 1991–1998 | Paris Saint-Germain | 248 | (16) |
| Total | 444 | (21) | |
| International career | |||
| 1993–1995 | France | 17 | (1) |
| 1998 | Brittany | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1998–2001 | Rennes | ||
| 2002–2005 | Lyon | ||
| 2006–2007 | Rangers | ||
| 2007–2009 | Paris Saint-Germain | ||
| 2009–2010 | Cameroon | ||
| 2011–2015 | Oman | ||
| 2017–2018 | Bursaspor | ||
| 2019–2022 | Le Havre | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Paul Joseph Marie Le Guen (French:[pɔlləɡwɛn],Breton:[pawlløɡwɛnː]; born 1 March 1964) is a French professionalfootballmanager and former player. He was most recently the manager of French clubLe Havre.[4]
During his playing career, Le Guen played as amidfielder, and enjoyed a successful stay withParis Saint-Germain between 1991 and 1998, and won 17 caps for theFrance national team. As a manager, his most notable achievement has been winning theLigue 1 title in each of his three seasons in charge ofLyon between 2002 and 2005.
Le Guen was born inPencran, Finistère.[2] During his playing career, he played atBrest for five years andNantes Atlantique for two years, before leaving his home region ofBrittany forParis Saint-Germain. In seven seasons at theParc des Princes, he made 478 appearances, winning a league title, three French Cups, two League Cups and theCup Winners' Cup medal in1996. Le Guen scored the winning goal in the1995 Coupe de France Final against Strasbourg.[5]
At international level, Le Guen played 17 times forFrance, due to injuries and he was part of the team which lost out on a trip to the1994 FIFA World Cup, along withEric Cantona andDavid Ginola. He ended his playing career by taking part in a friendly whereBrittany faced Cameroon on 21 May 1998. The match finished in a 1–1 draw.[citation needed]
Le Guen had a successful managerial career in France, most notably leadingOlympique Lyonnais to three consecutiveLigue 1 titles. He has also managedStade Rennais, Paris Saint-Germain,Rangers, theCameroon national team, theOman national team,Bursaspor andLe Havre. In July 2016, he was to be named manager of theNigeria national team, but didn't agree to the contract terms.[6][7]
During his time at Rennes between 1998 and 2001, Le Guen was noted for signing then unknown players, such asShabani Nonda andEl Hadji Diouf, who under his guidance, developed into talented footballers. He resigned from Rennes in 2001 after a fall-out with the club's board. This led to him taking a year off from football.[citation needed]
Le Guen replacedJacques Santini as manager of Olympique Lyonnais on 21 May 2002 after they captured their first league title.[8] Le Guen experienced a grim start to his managerial career at Lyon, winning only three games of the first nine, but eventually took Lyon to a further three consecutive championships and reached theUEFA Champions League quarter-final. He resigned from his position at Lyon on 9 May 2005, the day after the club won their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 championship,[9] withGérard Houllier taking over.[10][11]
After leaving the club, Le Guen embarked upon another year away from football management. During this time, he turned down management positions at several top European clubs, includingBenfica andLazio, and also stated that he would not return to manage his former club Paris Saint-Germain.[12]
On 11 March 2006, it was confirmed that Le Guen had agreed to replaceAlex McLeish as manager of Rangers starting inthe 2006–07 season.[13] Le Guen signed a three-year contract[14][15] with the option to extend his stay atIbrox,[12] and quickly acquired a number of players.[citation needed] Le Guen was the first Catholic to manage Rangers, ateam with a historically Protestant identity.[16]
Le Guen made a poor start to his Ibrox career. His record across his first ten league games was the worst start to a season by anOld Firm debutant sinceJohn Greig's team won only two, drew six and lost two of their opening ten games in1978–79.[17]
On 8 November, Rangers were knocked out of theScottish League Cup at the quarter-final stage byFirst Division sideSt Johnstone. The result, the first time Rangers had been knocked out of a cup tournament by a lower league side at home,[18][19] prompted protests outside Ibrox and demands for the situation to improve.[20]
On 1 January 2007, Rangers announced that Le Guen had strippedBarry Ferguson of his captaincy of the club and dropped him from the squad for a match the following day.BBC Sport reported that Ferguson would not play for Rangers again under Le Guen.[21]
Club chairmanDavid Murray announced on 4 January 2007 that Le Guen had left Rangers by mutual consent.[22] At the time, this made him the club's shortest-serving manager, and the only one to leave the club without completing a full season in charge.[23]
Le Guen's European record with Rangers has been described as being 'excellent' after remaining unbeaten in the2006–07 UEFA Cup and finishing at the top of their group.[24][25] However, it was the poor domestic results that ultimately led to his departure.[24]
It was announced on 15 January 2007 that Le Guen would return to the club he once skippered as a player as first team coach replacingGuy Lacombe at Paris Saint-Germain. When Le Guen arrived, PSG were lying 17th in Ligue 1 but he led them to safety in his first season finishing 15th.[26] As the 2007–08 season in Ligue 1 unfolded, it was clear that Le Guen was getting inconsistent performances from the crop of players, as the club was in the relegation zone with four games in the league season remaining, while winning theCoupe de la Ligue after beatingLens with 2–1,[27] as well as qualifying for the final of theCoupe de France. Winning the Coupe de la Ligue guaranteed the side a place in theUEFA Cup for the2008–09 season. PSG announced on 5 May 2009 that Le Guen would not be offered a new contract and would leave at the end of the 2008–09 season.[28][29]
Le Guen was named Cameroon national football team manager on 15 July 2009, penning a six-month contract.[30] He made an immediate impact by leading the team to qualification for the2010 FIFA World Cup.[31] Le Guen also stripped veteran defenderRigobert Song of the captaincy and the appointment ofSamuel Eto'o as the new captain.[32] Both players responded well to the change with Eto'o scoring goals, and Song winning back his starting spot as the Lions qualified for the finals. However, Cameroon were the first team officially knocked out of the 2010 World Cup. Le Guen announced his resignation on 24 June 2010.[33]
Towards the end of the 2010–11 season, Le Guen claimed he had received job offers from several Ligue 1 clubs that were seeking new candidates to fill the remaining vacancies,[citation needed] but he turned them all down. He eventually accepted an offer from Oman national football team on 11 June 2011.[34] He led Oman to qualification for the2015 AFC Asian Cup, where they were to be absent in2011. Oman were eliminated in the group stage of the tournament with one win and two losses. Le Guen was sacked on 19 November 2015 after a poor start of the2018 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.[35]
Le Guen was announced as the new manager ofSüper Lig team Bursaspor on 22 June 2017,[36] His first game was on 11 August 2017, a 1–0 league defeat away toİstanbul Başakşehir.[37] However, a string of poor results meant he was removed from his managerial post on 10 April 2018.[38]
On 29 May 2019, after ten years of managing abroad, Le Guen returned to France to become the new manager of Le Havre, replacingOswald Tanchot.[39] His debut game as manager came on 26 July 2019, ending in a 2–2 away draw toAjaccio.[40][41]
After a 6th-place finish in his debut campaign, Le Guen signed a new contract in August 2020, extending his deal by two years to 2023.[42] He was dismissed in June 2022, having not led the team to promotion and amidst negotiations for a sale of the club to a North American consortium.[43]
Le Guen met his wife Claude during his studies for a master's degree in Economic Sciences at theUniversity of Western Brittany inBrest. As of 2006, they have three children.[16] Le Guen ran theMarathon des Sables in the Moroccan desert in 2006.[16]
| Team | From | To | Record | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Rennes | June 1998 | May 2001 | 121 | 52 | 23 | 46 | 042.98 | [citation needed] |
| Lyon | 21 May 2002 | 9 May 2005 | 156 | 85 | 43 | 28 | 054.49 | [citation needed] |
| Rangers | 9 May 2006 | 4 January 2007 | 31 | 16 | 8 | 7 | 051.61 | [23] |
| Paris Saint-Germain | 15 January 2007 | 1 June 2009 | 132 | 62 | 30 | 40 | 046.97 | [citation needed] |
| Cameroon | 15 July 2009 | 24 June 2010 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 036.84 | [44] |
| Oman | 12 June 2011 | 19 November 2015 | 85 | 31 | 28 | 26 | 036.47 | [citation needed] |
| Bursaspor | 22 June 2017 | 10 April 2018 | 34 | 13 | 7 | 14 | 038.24 | [citation needed] |
| Le Havre | 29 May 2019 | 19 June 2022 | 110 | 37 | 37 | 36 | 033.64 | [41] |
| Total | 688 | 303 | 181 | 204 | 044.04 | |||
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