Aimé Jacquet

Aimé Étienne Jacquet (born 27 November 1941) is a French former professional football manager and player. He was manager of the France national football team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Aimé Jacquet
Jacquet in 2005
Personal information
Full name Aimé Étienne Jacquet[1]
Date of birth (1941-11-27) 27 November 1941[2]
Place of birth Sail-sous-Couzan, France
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)[2]
Position(s) Defensive midfielder
Youth career
1958–1960 Sail-sous-Couzan
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1960–1973 Saint-Étienne 192 (23)
1973–1975 Lyon 22 (2)
Total 214 (25)
National team
1968 France 2 (0)
Teams managed
1976–1980 Lyon
1980–1989 Bordeaux
1989–1990 Montpellier
1990–1991 Nancy
1992–1993 France (assistant)
1993–1998 France
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Biography

Jacquet was born in Sail-sous-Couzan, Loire.[2] He began his career as an amateur player for his local club, US Couzan, while working in a factory. Scouted by Saint-Étienne, he joined Les Verts in 1960. One of the most successful clubs of the time, Saint-Étienne, won an impressive five league titles and three French Cups in his 11 years with the club. He also played for the national side, but his international career failed to take off because Les Bleus performed poorly during his years on the team. In 1973, he left Saint-Étienne for regional rivals Olympique Lyonnais, where he ended his career as a player.

A "provisional" manager

Jacquet worked as a manager for clubs around France and gained an impressive list of accolades for Bordeaux during the 1980s, leading them to three league titles, two French Cups, two European semi-finals and one-quarter-final. Dismissed by President Claude Bez in 1989, he left Bordeaux to hone his managerial skills with more modest teams like Montpellier and Nancy.

In 1991, he accepted a position with the National Technical Training Centre (Direction Technique Nationale).

In 1992, he was appointed the assistant to then national team manager Gérard Houllier.

After the French national team was knocked out of the running for the 1994 FIFA World Cup by Israel and Bulgaria, Jacquet was made the manager of the national team, but only provisionally. After a promising series of friendly matches including a victory over Italy, his provisional status was upgraded to permanent.

Jacquet initially selected Eric Cantona as captain and made him the team's playmaker. Cantona had successfully restarted his career in the FA Premier League and was playing some of the best football of his career, but he kicked a Crystal Palace fan in January 1995, which earned him a year-long suspension from all international matches.

As Cantona was the key playmaker, Jacquet was forced to make major changes to the team in the wake of his suspension. Jacquet revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zinedine Zidane and other younger players, while dropping Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola. Jacquet succeeded in helping France qualify for the Euro 96.

Making it all the way to the semi-finals, Les Bleus managed to show they could survive without veterans such as Papin, Cantona, or Ginola. Jacquet himself stated that the team had done well without Cantona, and that he wanted to keep faith with the players who had taken them so far.[3]

From doubt to victory
A France jersey emblazoned with Jacquet's name with the match ball used in the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final, on display at the Musée National du Sport.

In the months that followed the Euro 96, Jacquet honed his team's skills in a series of friendly matches. He adopted a very defensive strategy. The press began to criticise the team manager, calling his methods "paleolithic".

In June 1997 at Le Tournoi, cries of "Resign!" could be heard from the stadium as the French team finished third behind England and Brazil, only coming out ahead of Italy by virtue of goal difference. The press continued to criticise Jacquet.

The media's distrust of Jacquet reached fever pitch in May 1998 when, instead of a list of 22 players meant to play in the World Cup, Jacquet gave a list of 28 players, causing the sports daily L'Équipe to write an editorial arguing that Jacquet was not the right man to lead the French team to victory.

However, all that changed when the team began to play in the play-off rounds for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It was clear that though Jacquet's team was far from being the most flamboyant in French history, it was a perfectly well-oiled machine that neither injury, nor expulsions, nor suspensions, managed to stop. On 12 July 1998, France soundly beat Brazil 3–0 in the Final. Key to the victory was when Jacquet pointed out to his players that Brazilian marking at set-pieces was somewhat suspect, and Zidane headed two goals in from corner kicks.[4]

Following the victory, Jacquet announced that he was leaving his position as manager of the French national team due to previous pressures and criticisms against him.[5] He then became technical director of French football in August 1998, a position which he held until his retirement in December 2006.[6]

Career statistics

Club
Jacquet (top row, second left) with the AS Saint-Étienne Le Championnat winning team of 1968.
Source:[7][8]
Club performance League Cup Continental Other Total
Season Club Division AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
France League Coupe de France Europe Other[n 1] Total
1960–61Saint-ÉtienneDivision 12100––21
1961–620000––00
1962–63Division 22100000021
1963–64Division 12020–2060
1964–65300000–30
1965–6627210––282
1966–6736520––385
1967–68353604100454
1968–69313402010383
1969–70234813010355
1970–710000000000
1971–72210000–21
1972–7329341––334
1973–74LyonDivision 1152113000193
1974–75700010–80
Career total 214252831314025929
  1. Includes Coupe Charles Drago (1963–64) and Trophée des champions

International
Source:[9]
France national team
YearAppsGoals
196820
Total20

Managerial
Source:[7][8][10]
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Lyon February 1976 July 1980 183 65 42 76 035.52
Bordeaux July 1980 February 1989 422 219 115 88 051.90
Montpellier July 1989 February 1990 25 7 5 13 028.00
Nancy July 1990 July 1991 40 12 11 17 030.00
France 17 December 1993 29 July 1998 53 34 16 3 064.15
Total 723 337 189 197 046.61

Honors

As a player

Saint-Étienne

As a manager

Bordeaux

France

Individual

Orders

References
  1. "Décret du 13 juillet 1998 portant promotion et nomination" [Decree of 13 July 1998 on promotion and appointment]. Official Journal of the French Republic (in French). 1998 (161). 14 July 1998. PREX9801876D. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  2. "Aimé Jacquet". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  3. FourFourTwo Great Footballers: Eric Cantona 198.
  4. "Classic Football: France 1998". Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2006.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). FIFA. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  5. "Jacquet to become France technical director". ESPN Soccernet. 17 July 1998. Archived from the original on 17 April 1999. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  6. "Aimé JACQUET" (in French). French Football Federation. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  7. "Aimé Jacquet" (in French). Pari-Et-Gagne.com. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  8. "Aimé Jacquet". Football Database.eu. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  9. "Jacquet, Aimé". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  10. "French National Team coaches". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  11. Garin, Erik; Pierrend, José Luis (8 January 2015). "France – Footballer of the Year". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  12. "FORMER RESULTS". IFFHS.de. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  13. "Messi and Ronaldo: Equal!". UPL. 8 November 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  14. Banyas, Volodymyr (25 October 2013). "Berlin-Britz Greatest XI by Decade" (№ 88). newspaper Ukrainskyi Futbol.
  15. "Décret du 31 décembre 2006 portant promotion et nomination" [Decree of 31 December 2006 on promotion and appointment]. Official Journal of the French Republic (in French). 2007 (1). 2 January 2007. PREX0609790D. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
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