After four white seasons, Laurent Blanc will resume his place on a coaching bench.

The former coach of the France and PSG team was appointed on Saturday, December 19, coach of the Qatari club of Al Rayyan with an eighteen-month contract.

Rumors had announced it in Lyon in 2019 then more recently in Nice, FC Nantes, Toronto FC and even Barcelona.

It is finally in Qatar, in the club of Al Rayyan, that the crossing of the desert of the quadruple champion coach of France, former coach of the France team (2010-2012) ends.

Aged 55, the 1998 world champion had been without a club for more than four years and a Coupe de France final won by Paris-SG against Marseille (4-2).

At the end of November, he appeared almost fatalistic in an interview on TF1: "I still want to train, but the more time passes and the less I believe in it. I will surely come back, but it will not be towards adults, perhaps with children . There is plenty to do in amateur sport. "

And to concede that football was "taking a direction that [he did] not so much". 

In just six seasons as a club coach, three in Bordeaux (2007-2010), as many at PSG (2013-2016), Laurent Blanc has forged an impressive record, with four league titles including three in the capital.

He also offered PSG a playing identity, based on offense and possession of the ball.

One of the most capped coaches

To find a more successful coach in the French championship, you have to go back to the era of black and white TV and Albert Batteux (8).

And Laurent Blanc embellished these titles with two French Cups and four League Cups.

When he arrived in 2013, to succeed Carlo Ancelotti, he had however been presented as a default choice of his Qatari employers, who would have liked to attract a little more buoyant CVs.

Despite this national success, his inability to take PSG to a European level cost him his post, which he had to give up to Unai Emery, crowned with his three coronations in the Europa League with Sevilla.

But the Spaniard could not do better, never even reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League, unlike his predecessor who had achieved it three times in as many seasons.

At PSG, the man with 97 selections in blue, author of the saving gold goal against Paraguay in the round of 16 of the World Cup-98, had to manage the moods and doubts of his stars (Cavani, Motta, Thiago Silva).

But also to cash the affront inflicted by his side Serge Aurier, who had publicly insulted him during a discussion with Internet users on Periscope.

These differences between young players also weighed on his coaching career, despite an honorable record with a French team in the image on the mat after the Knysna scandal at the South African World Cup.

He may have appeared overwhelmed by the behavioral differences of players like Samir Nasri or Jérémy Ménez, who belonged to a generation that he no longer seemed to understand.

Euro-2012 and its lease ended with a lingering sense of chaos in the locker room.

The quota case

"I've been around this new generation, there are a lot of people […] who spend their time apologizing. I think that instead of apologizing, you have to think about what you're doing, like that. , it allows you not to apologize all the time, "the former defender once said.

His stint as coach was also marked by the case of discriminatory ethnic quotas, revealed by Mediapart.

French football leaders, including Laurent Blanc, had been accused of wanting to limit the number of binational players in training centers.

Player, he did not obtain in a club of record to the height of his talent, even if he evolved in Naples, alongside Diego Maradona (1991-92), in Barcelona (1996-97), in Marseille ( 1997-99), Inter Milan (1999-2001) or Manchester United (2001-2003).

It is especially with the French team that this silent Cévenol has shaped its national popularity, with the World-Euro double in 1998-2000.

Framework of the Blues, he had however missed the final after his exclusion in the semi-final, trapped by the Croatian Slaven Bilic who had simulated a blow addressed by the Frenchman.

His ritual kiss on Fabien Barthez's skull remains as one of the symbolic images of the epic of the Blues of France-1998.

With AFP

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