Gérard Houiller, in December 2019 at the Pierre Mauroy stadium.
-
CHRISTOPHE SAIDI / SIPA
“With the death of Gérard Houiller, France loses a great coach and football, a technician recognized all over the world.
He was passionate about transmission ”.
In his first tribute to the former coach of the Blues, Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu hit the nail on the head.
If Houiller had a brilliant career in France, where he won the title of champion of France with both PSG and OL, his image was a little blurred after the episode of France-Bulgaria 1993 and his famous “crime against the team” launched to the figure of David Ginola, an injury that his passage as DTN during the worst years of French football, at the end of the 2000s, has never managed to completely fade.
A legend in England
If the man was able to split in his country, including in his functions of adviser to OL during the last years of his life, he left an immaculate memory in England, where the tributes of former Liverpool players poured in quickly.
Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher said on twitter "absolutely devastated".
“I was in contact with him during the last month to bring him to Liverpool [probably to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2001 quadruplet].
I loved this man madly, he changed me as a person and as a player, and made Liverpool win back trophies.
RIP boss ”.
We are mourning the passing of our treble-winning manager, Gerard Houllier.
The thoughts of everyone at Liverpool Football Club are with Gerard's family and many friends.
Rest in peace, Gerard Houllier 1947-2020.
pic.twitter.com/isHGXIfe5E
- Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 14, 2020
Michael Owen, consecrated Ballon d'Or after this crazy season, was no less moved: “I am heartbroken to read that my former coach Gérard Houiller has passed away.
He was a great manager and a man who really took care of others ”.
Phil Thomson, who arrived with Houiller to take up the post of deputy in the Reds' staff in 1998, remembers “one of the strongest moments of his life.
To be with Gerard was an absolute privilege.
He was so loyal, so passionate, and he was a fierce competitor ”.
"He won in all the clubs he went to"
Joined by the
team
, the president of the FFF Noël Le Graët, a man of the same generation, did not hide his emotion: “I am very sad.
We have always been very close.
We started around the same time.
He was a trainer at Noeux-les-Mines
(from 1976 to 1982)
when I started at Guingamp.
When I see his background, everything he has achieved, everything he has done, I tell myself that he has been extremely creative.
In the France team, at Clairefontaine, he did a lot of things.
In all the clubs he's been to, he's structured them and he's won.
Everywhere he has practiced, there is success.
It is a great sadness for football.
I worked with him a lot.
We are neighbors in Paris.
Sometimes we had lunch or dinner.
He has always been very courteous, very kind.
"
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Gérard Houllier, former Blues coach and Liverpool coach, is dead
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Disappearance
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