Paul Le Guen

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Paul Le Guen
Personal information
Full name	Paul Le Guen
Date of birth	1 March 1964 (1964-03-01) (age 45)
Place of birth	Pencran, France
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Paris Saint-Germain (manager)
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1982–1983 1983–1989 1989–1991 1991–1998	AS Brest Stade Brest 29 FC Nantes Atlantique Paris Saint-Germain Total	000 0(0) 154 0(6) 076 0(1) 248 (16) 478 (23)
National team
1993–1995	France	017 0(0)[1]
Teams managed
1998–2001 2002–2005 2006–2007 2007–2009	Stade Rennais Olympique Lyonnais Rangers Paris Saint-Germain
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Le Guen (born 1 March 1964 in Pencran, Brittany) is a French former international football defender. He is currently without a club after Paris Saint-Germain decided not to renew his contract as coach.

Le Guen had a successful managerial career in France, most notably leading Olympique Lyonnais to three consecutive Ligue 1 titles. He has also managed Stade Rennais and had an unsuccessful brief spell at Rangers in Scotland. During his playing career he enjoyed successful stays with FC Nantes and Paris St. Germain and won 17 caps for the French national team.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Club level 1.2 International level 2 Managerial career 2.1 Rennes 2.2 Lyon 2.3 Rangers 2.4 Paris Saint Germain 3 Honours 4 Statistics 4.1 Manager 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Club level

During his playing career, Le Guen played at Stade Brest for six years, Nantes Atlantique) for two years, before leaving Brittany for Paris St. Germain where he played for seven years (with 478 appearances and a Cup Winners' Cup medal in 1996).

[edit] International level

At international level he played 17 times for France due to injuries and he was part of the team which lost out on a trip to the World Cup in 1994, along with Eric Cantona and David Ginola. He ended his playing career by taking part in a friendly where his home region of Brittany faced Cameroon on 21 May 1998. The match finished 1-1.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Rennes

During his time at Rennes between 1998 and 2001, Le Guen was noted for signing then unknown players, such as Shabani Nonda and El 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.

[edit] Lyon

Le Guen replaced Jacques Santini as manager of Olympique Lyonnais in 2002 after they captured their first league title. Le Guen experienced a grim start to his managerial career at Lyon, winning only 3 games of the first 9, but eventually took Lyon to a further three consecutive championships and reached the UEFA 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. He was replaced by Gérard Houllier.

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 including Benfica and Lazio and also stated that he would not return to manage his former club PSG.^[2]

[edit] Rangers

On 11 March 2006, it was confirmed that Paul Le Guen had agreed to replace Alex McLeish as manager of Rangers starting in the 2006-07 season. Rangers chairman David Murray predicted Le Guen's capture would be followed by "a massive moonbeam of success" coming to the club.^[3] Le Guen signed a 3 year contract ^[4][5] with the option to extend his stay at Ibrox,^[2] and quickly acquired a number of players.

However, 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 an Old Firm debutant since John Greig's team won only two, drew six and lost two of their opening ten games in 1978-79.^[6]

On 8 November, Rangers were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup at the quarter-final stage by First Division side St. Johnstone. The result, the first time Rangers had been knocked out of a cup tournament by a lower league side at home,^[7][8] prompted protests outside Ibrox and demands for the situation to improve and David Murray to leave the club.^[9]

On 1 January 2007, Rangers announced that Le Guen had stripped Barry 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.^[10]

Murray announced on 4 January 2007 that Paul Le Guen had left Rangers by mutual consent.^[11] This made him the club's shortest-serving manager, and the only one to leave the club without completing a full season in charge.

Later that year, sports journalist Graham Spiers published, Paul Le Guen: Enigma (ISBN 1845962915) documenting his tenure at the club. According to Spiers, Le Guen left the club because he felt he was being "undermined" by other Rangers personnel, including Ferguson and then club doctor, Ian McGuinness, although Spiers also states that, "For his part, McGuinness was entitled to believe that he was being treated shabbily". ^[12]

[edit] Paris Saint Germain

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 replacing Guy Lacombe at Paris Saint Germain. When he arrived, PSG were lying 17th in Ligue 1 but he led them to safety in his 1st season finishing 15th.^[13] 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 the Coupe de la Ligue qualifying for the final of the Coupe de France. Winning the Coupe de la Ligue guaranteed PSG a place in the UEFA Cup for the 2008-09 season. PSG announced in May 2009 that Paul Le Guen would not be offered a new contract and would leave at the end of the 2008-09 season.^[14]

[edit] Honours

Ligue 1 Championship: 3

• 2003, 2004, 2005

Trophée des Champions: 3

• 2002, 2003, 2004

Coupe de la Ligue: 2

• 2001, 2008

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Stade Rennais		1998	2001	121	53	22	46	43.80
Olympique Lyonnais		1 July 2002	1 June 2005	155	84	43	28	54.19
Rangers		9 May 2006	4 January 2007	31	16	8	7	51.61
Paris Saint-Germain		15 January 2007	Present	110	53	24	33	48.18
Total				417	206	97	114	49.4

As of 11 February 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paul Le Guen management career stats at Soccerbase
• Paul Le Guen - Footballdatabase.eu
• Profile on French federation site

v • d • e Stade Rennais FC – Managers Szekany (1932–33) · Mc Cloy (1933–34) · Schneider (1934–36) · Batmale (1936–39) · Pleyer (1945–52) · Artigas (1952–55) · Guérin (1955–61) · Cuissard (1961–64) · Prouff (1964–72) · Cédolin (1972–74) · Cuissard (1974–76) · Dubaële (1976–77) · Jubert (1977–79) · Garcia (1979–82) · Vincent (1982–84) · Mosca (1984–86) · Rampillon (1987) · Keruzoré (1987–91) · Notheaux (1991–93) · Le Millinaire (1993–96) · Colleu (1996–97) · David (1997–98) · Le Guen (1998–01) · Gourcuff (2001–02) · Bergeroo (2002) · Halilhodžić (2002–03) · Bölöni (2003–06) · Dréossi (2006–07) · Lacombe (2007–09) · Antonetti (2009–)

v • d • e Olympique Lyonnais – Managers Heisserer (1950–54) · Darui (1954–55) · Troupel (1955–59) · Robert (1959–61) · Fernandez (1961–62) · Jasseron (1962–66) · Hon (1966–68) · Mignot (1968–76) · Jacquet (1976–80) · Destrumelle (1980–81) · Kovačević (1981–83) · Herbin (1983–85) · Nouzaret (1985–87) · Papas (1987–88) · Le Borgne (1988) · Domenech (1988–93) · Tigana (1993–95) · Stéphan (1995–96) · Lacombe (1996–2000) · Santini (2000–02) · Le Guen (2002–05) · Houllier (2005–07) · Perrin (2007–08) · Puel (2008–)

v • d • e Rangers F.C. – Managers Wilton (1899–1920) · Struth (1920–1954) · Symon (1954–1967) · White (1967–1969) · Waddell (1969–1972) · Wallace (1972–1978) · Greig (1978–1983) · Wallace (1983–1986) · Souness (1986–1991) · Smith (1991–1998) · Advocaat (1998–2001) · McLeish (2001–2006) · Le Guen (2006–2007) · Smith (2007–-) ·

v • d • e Paris Saint-Germain FC – Managers Quenolle (1957–69) · Phelipon (1969–72) · Vicot (1972–73) · Fontaine & Vicot (1973–75) · Fontaine (1975–76) · Pantelić & Vasović (1976–77) · Alonzo (1977) · Larqué (1977–78) · Vasović (1978–79) · Choquier & Vasović (1979) · Alonzo (1979) · Peyroche (1979–83) · Leduc (1983–84) · Peyroche (1984–85) · Houllier (1985–87) · Houllier & Mombaerts (1987–88) · Mombaerts (1988) · Ivić (1988–90) · Michel (1990–91) · Jorge (1991–94) · Fernandez (1994–96) · Bats & Ricardo (1996–98) · Giresse (1998) · Jorge (1998–99) · Bergeroo (1999–2000) · Fernandez (2000–03) · Halilhodžić (2003–05) · Fournier (2005) · Lacombe (2005–07) · Le Guen (2007–09) · Kombouaré (2009-–)

v • d • e Paris Saint-Germain FC – current squad 1 Landreau · 2 Ceará · 3 Sakho · 4 Makélélé · 6 Bourillon · 7 Giuly · 8 Luyindula · 9 Hoarau · 10 Sessegnon · 12 Pancrate · 13 S. Traoré · 14 Kežman · 15 Camara · 16 Véron · 17 Mabiala · 18 Arnaud · 19 Lee · 20 Chantôme · 21 Maurice · 22 Armand · 23 Clément · 24 Makonda · 25 Rothen · 26 N'Goyi · 27 Sankharé · 30 Edel · –– Diakhaby · –– Maurice · Manager: Le Guen

v • d • e Ligue 1 managers Antonetti · Baup · Baždarević · Blanc · Casanova · Correa · Dumas & Parizon · Fernandez · Garcia · Gerets · Gillot · Gomes · Gourcuff · Hantz · Cormier · Kombouaré · Lacombe · Le Guen · Perrin · Puel