French champions Lille turn to Gourvennec as head coach
LILLE: French champions Lille announced on Monday the appointment of Jocelyn Gourvennec, former coach of Bordeaux and Guingamp, as their new head coach.
The 49-year-old succeeds Chrisophe Galtier, who let the club for Nice just two days ater securing the Ligue 1 title.
“Lille is delighted with the arrival of Jocelyn Gourvennec,” the club said in a statement.
“Already at work, the new Lille coach will join his players in the Netherlands tonight (Monday) for a pre-season internship before being presented to the media on Wednesday.”
This appointment comes as a surprise as Gourvennec has not coached a side since 2019, spending the last two years as a television pundit.
Thiago Mota, Laurent Blanc, Patrick Vieira and Lucien Favre had all been connected with the job while Claudio Ranieri, who led Leicester City to the English Premier League title in 2017, was the French media’s favourite for the job.
Gourvennec was a midfielder for Nantes, Marseille and Rennes before turning to coaching.
In his first stint with Guingamp he led them to promition to Ligue 1 and won the French Cup in 2014, his only honour thus far. Ater a stint with Bordeaux he returned to Guingamp but relegation in 2019 saw him take a step back from coaching.
Lille stunned French football when they beat cash-rich Paris St-german to the title in May, ending a three-year league winning streak for the Qatari-backed Parisians.
Meanwhile, Arsenal midfielder Mateo Guendouzi, who spent last year at Hertha Berlin, has joined Marseille on loan, the French Ligue 1 club announced on Tuesday.
Masreille signed the 22-year-old Frenchman on a one-year deal with an option to buy.
Guendouzi made his Ligue 1 debut for Lorient in 2016 before joining Arsenal two years later.
He made 82 appearances for the Gunners, scoring one goal and came off the bench in the 2019 Europa League final against Chelsea.
Guendouzi scored twice in 24 appearances for Bundelsiga side Hertha Berlin last season.
He was called up by France coach Didier Deschamps as cover for Paul Pogba for two Euro 2020 qualifiers but was an unused substitute.
Guendouzi’s arrival comes three days ater Marseille signed Argentina defender Leonardo Balerdi on a permanent basis.