Francis Gillot

Francis Gillot (French pronunciation: ​[fʁɑ̃sis ʒilo]; born February 9, 1960) is a former football defender and most recently managed Ligue 2 team AJ Auxerre.

Francis Gillot
Personal information
Full name Francis Gillot
Date of birth (1960-02-09) February 9, 1960
Place of birth Maubeuge, France
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
1970–1974 Villiers-Siré-Nicole
1974–1978 Valenciennes
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1978–1982 Valenciennes 93 (6)
1982–1988 Lens 158 (10)
1988–1989 Strasbourg 20 (2)
1989–1993 Lens 90 (2)
1993 Mulhouse 5 (0)
1993–1996 Montauban ? (?)
Teams managed
2005–2007 Lens
2008–2011 Sochaux
2011–2014 Bordeaux
2014–2015 Shanghai Shenhua
2017 AJ Auxerre
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

As a player, he was predominantly associated with his time at Valenciennes and Lens while having brief periods with Strasbourg as well as Mulhouse before ending his career with Montauban. Since retiring he would initially move into youth coaching before moving into assistant management and then gaining his first head coaching position with his former club Lens. He has gone on to manage Sochaux and went on to win the 2012–13 Coupe de France with Bordeaux.

Playing career

Born in Maubeuge, France, Francis Gillot started his football career playing for the youth team of his local club Villiers-Siré-Nicole before joining the Valenciennes FC academy. At Valencianones he would work his way up into the senior team and in the 1978–79 season he would start his professional career when he was included in the squad for the Ligue 1 outfit.[1] He would eventually become a regular starter in the team's defence until they were relegated at the end of the 1981–82 French Division 1 season.[2]

In the following season Gillot would move to top tier club RC Lens and experienced continental competitions with the club during his initial time with the team until the manager Jean Parisseaux decided he could be loan to RC Strasbourg in the 1988/89 campaign.[3] Upon his return to Lens the club found themselves in the second tier after experiencing relegation, however Gillot stayed with the team until they won promotion back into the top tier at the end of the 1990–91 French Division 2 season.[4] After spending several further seasons with Lens, Gillot would be nearing the end of his career and he joined second tier club FC Mulhouse for a brief period before ending his career with lower league side FC Montauban.

Management career

After retiring from playing Gillot, soon moved into coaching and joined the FC Sochaux U15 team as a trainer in 1996. He rose to be the team's U19 coach as well as the assistant coach to former head coaches Philippe Anziani and Jean Fernandez. After spending several years with the club he left in 2003 to go abroad to join United Arab Emirates football team Al Ain FC and be their assistant coach under fellow countryman Bruno Metsu. After spending one season abroad, Gillot returned to France as an assistant to Joël Müller at his former club RC Lens.

At RC Lens, Gillot was promoted to the team's manager after Joël Müller resigned on January 24, 2005, and for the remainder of the season he guided the club to a seventh-place finish.[5] In his first full season Gillot would impress the fans with his outspokenness, confidence towards youth and offensive play that saw the team move up to fourth and qualification for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup.[6] This saw a growing expectation from the fans that the club could achieve more, however the club finished fifth and a point away from qualification for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League.[7] Unable to exceed expectations Gillot resigned on May 28, 2007; however he still remained at the club as a recruiter.

On January 2, 2008, Gillot joined struggling top-tier side Sochaux as their new manager after replacing Frédéric Hantz and in his debut season led the club to safety from the relegation zone. The following season the club would continue to struggle to avoid relegation; however Gillot was offered a two-year contract to remain with the team after avoiding relegation once again Sochaux's results significantly improved in the 2010–11 Ligue 1 campaign, which saw the club finish fifth.[8] Despite the club gaining qualification for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League and Gillot gaining a nomination for French coach of the year award, Gillot decided to publicly declare that he wanted to leave the club.[9] On June 5, 2011 he officially resigned from his post; however he immediately took over Bordeaux the following day, leading many from the French media to suspect that Gillot intentionally engineered the move to gain a larger operating budget from his new club and a higher salary.[10]

On 6 June 2011, Gillot was officially signed on as the new head coach of Bordeaux with a two-year contract at the club.[11] In his debut season he guided them to a fifth-place finish and qualification for the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League where he led them to the round of 16 before being knocked out by Benfica, 4–2 on aggregate.[12] His reign at the club reached its peak when he won the 2012–13 Coupe de France by beating Evian Thonon Gaillard F.C. 3–2 in the final, which saw him rewarded with a two-year extension to his contract.[13] In the following season, results within the league did not improve and the club were knocked out in the group stages of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League and after a 1–1 draw with Olympique de Marseille on May 10, 2014, he announced that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.[14]

Gillot was appointed as the new manager of AJ Auxerre on 1 June 2017.[15] He was sacked on 9 December 2017.[16]

Statistics

Playing statistics
As of 8 December 2014.[17]
Season Club League League Cups Europe Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
1978–79 Valenciennes FC Ligue 1 4000--40
1979–80 16020––180
1980-81 22210––232
1981-82 35271––423
1982–83 Ligue 2 16200––162
1982–83 RC Lens Ligue 1 6010––70
1983–84 1915040281
1984–85 29352––345
1985–86 36250––412
1986–87 3237020413
1987–88 36160––421
1988–89 RC Strasbourg 20230––232
1989–90 RC Lens Ligue 2 27010––280
1990–91 27360––333
1991–92 Ligue 1 29220––312
1992–93 5000––50
1992–93 FC Mulhouse Ligue 2 5010––60
1993–94 Montauban FC Midi-Pyrénées Division Honneur ??00––00
1994–95 National 3 Group G ??10––10
1995–96 ??10––10
Career total 364235436042426

Managerial statistics
As of 9 December 2017.[17]
Club From To Record
G W D L Win %
RC Lens 24 January 2005 28 May 2007 130 55 42 33 042.31
FC Sochaux 2 January 2008 5 June 2011 148 52 35 61 035.14
Bordeaux 6 June 2011 23 May 2014 148 56 50 42 037.84
Shanghai Shenhua 4 December 2014 29 November 2015 37 16 8 13 043.24
Auxerre 1 June 2017 9 December 2017 19 5 5 9 026.32
Total 482 184 140 158 038.17

Honours

As a player
FC Montauban

As a coach
Lens
Bordeaux

References
  1. "Francis Gillot". footballzz.co.uk. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  2. "Ligue 1 1981/82". footballzz.co.uk. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  3. "Francis Gillot" (in French). pari-et-gagne.com. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  4. "Francis Gillot". rsssf.com. 29 January 2005. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  5. "France 2004/05". rsssf.com. 2 Aug 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. "France 2005/06". rsssf.com. 12 Sep 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  7. "France 2006/07". rsssf.com. 7 Sep 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  8. "France 2010/11". rsssf.com. 17 Jan 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  9. "Gillot : "Je veux partir"" (in French). lequipe.fr. 2011-06-01. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  10. "Girondins de Bordeaux – Sochaux: Gillot, l'argent ne fait pas tout…" (in French). sportune.fr. 2011-12-18. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  11. "Gillot proud to coach Bordeaux". ligue1.com. 2011-06-07. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  12. "2012/13 UEFA Europa League - FC Girondins de Bordeaux" (in French). uefa.com. 2013-06-26. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  13. "Bordeaux remporte la Coupe de France !" (in French). fff.fr. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  14. "Gillot announces Bordeaux departure". ligue1.com. 2014-05-11. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  15. FRANCIS GILLOT NOUVEL ENTRAÎNEUR DE L'AJ AUXERRE‚ sport24.lefigaro.fr, 1 June 2017
  16. "Gillot n'est plus l'entraîneur d'Auxerre". Le Figaro. 9 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  17. "Football: Francis Gillot". footballdatabase.eu. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  18. "National 3 Gr. G 1996" (in French). footballenfrance.fr. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  19. "DH Midi - 1994" (in French). footballenfrance.fr. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  20. "Lens 3-1 Cluj (Aggregate: 4 - 2)". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.