Former Manchester United and Barcelona centre-back Laurent Blanc was sacked from her managerial role at Lyon a couple of months ago. SportsLens has decided to take a look at his career, both as a player and a manager.
What clubs did Laurent Blanc play for?
Nicknamed, Le President, Blanc was best known for his leadership abilities as he once captained France. He started out his career at Montpellier. Blanc played for Montpellier for 10 years – eight years in the senior team. He made his debut when he was just 18, he then went on to win the French Cup with them in 1989/90 season. He also won French player of the year in 1990.
Blanc made 243 appearances for Montpellier. He also scored 76 goals for them in that time.
Blanc’s career then became stop-start. In 1991, he moved to Italy to play for Napoli. The following season he moved back to France to play for Nimes. He didn’t stay long there either, he moved to Saint-Etienne the season after.
Blanc stayed there for two season marking 7o appearances for the club. In 1995, he moved to AJ Auxerre where he won the French title – more commonly known now as Ligue 1.
The season after he moved to Barcelona where he enjoyed his most successful spell. He won the Spanish cup twice and the Europapokal Der Pokalsieger Sieger (European Cup Winners’ Cup Winners’ Cup).
In 1997, he moved to France to play for Marseille. The following year he won his first senior cup with France. He was part of the side that lifted the World Cup in 98′. A famous and controversial moment when Blanc was sent off in the semi-final against Croatia. He was deemed to have punched Slaven Bilic in the face but replays show no contact was made. France won 3-0 in the final against Brazil. Of course, France did the double and won the 2000 EUROS. He made 97 appearances for his country.
In 1999, he moved to Italy once more to play for Inter Milan in the Serie A. With no more domestic trophies to add to his name, he then left for England where he ended his playing career at Manchester United. He won the Premier League with them in the 2002/23 season, making 48 appearances in the two years he played for them. He retired in 2003.
Managerial career
In 2007, Blanc’s first managerial role came at Bordeaux. In his first season, he led the club to second place in Ligue 1 and won the Manager of the Year award. His second Ligue 1 season was extremely successful. Bordeaux won the final 11 league matches of the 2008–09 Ligue 1 season, setting a new French record for consecutive wins. He also led them to glory as Bordeaux lifted the Ligue 1 title as well as the Coupe de la Ligue.
Blanc took over as France manager in 2010 as he was intrusted to bring glory to France in the 2012 EUROS. He stepped down after the competition as they were beaten by Spain in the quarter-finals.
In 2013, Blanc was hired as PSG manager. Domestically, Blanc won 11 out of the 12 trophies that were up for grabs in his three-year spell at the club.
Blanc left on ‘mutual agreement’ after his struggles to win in the Champions League. PSG made the quarter-finals three years in a row but never got beyond that stage.
Blanc’s career took an unusual turn when he joined Qatari side, Al-Rayyan. He wasn’t able to do much with the side and was later sacked in 2022.
He returned to France though to manage Lyon. In September, he was sacked just 11 months into his time at the club due to poor results. Lyon sat bottom of the league on one point when he was sacked.
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