Aimé Jacquet

Jacquet worked as a manager for clubs around France and gained an impressive list of accolades for Bordeaux during the 1980s, leading them to three league titles, two French Cups, two European semi-finals and one-quarter-final. Dismissed by President Claude Bez in 1989, he left Bordeaux to hone his managerial skills with more modest teams like Montpellier and Nancy.

In 1991, he accepted a position with the National Technical Training Centre (Direction Technique Nationale).

In 1992, he was appointed the assistant to then national team manager Gérard Houllier.

After the French national team was knocked out of the running for the 1994 FIFA World Cup by Israel and Bulgaria, Jacquet was made the manager of the national team, but only provisionally. After a promising series of friendly matches (notably a victory over Italy-which qualified for 1994 World Cup in Naples in February 1994), his provisional status was upgraded to permanent.

Jacquet initially selected Eric Cantona as captain and made him the team's playmaker. Cantona had successfully restarted his career in the FA Premier League and was playing some of the best football of his career, but he kicked a Crystal Palace fan in January 1995, which earned him a year-long suspension from all international matches.

As Cantona was the key playmaker, Jacquet was forced to make major changes to the team in the wake of his suspension. Jacquet revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zinedine Zidane and other younger players, while dropping Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola. Jacquet succeeded in helping France qualify for the Euro 96.

Making it all the way to the semi-finals, Les Bleus managed to show they could survive without veterans such as Papin, Cantona, or Ginola. Jacquet himself stated that the team had done well without Cantona, and that he wanted to keep faith with the players who had taken them so far.[3]

A France jersey emblazoned with Jacquet's name with the match ball used in the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final, on display at the Musée National du Sport.

In the months that followed the Euro 96, Jacquet honed his team's skills in a series of friendly matches. He adopted a very defensive strategy and made fans anxious because his team never seemed to develop a definitive offensive tactic. The press began to attack the team manager, calling his methods "paleolithic" and claiming that the team had no hope for the World Cup, mentioning about France's failures to qualify for two previous editions in Italy and the United States. Jacquet, taciturn by nature, did not rise to the baiting.

In June 1997 at Le Tournoi, cries of "Resign!" could be heard from the stadium as the French team finished third behind England and Brazil, only coming out ahead of Italy by virtue of goal difference. The press continued to label Jacquet incompetent.

The media's distrust of Jacquet reached fever pitch in May 1998 when, instead of a list of 22 players meant to play in the World Cup, Jacquet gave a list of 28 players, causing the sports daily L'Équipe to write an editorial arguing that Jacquet was not the right man to lead the French team to victory.

However, all that changed when the team began to play in the play-off rounds for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It was clear that though Jacquet's team was far from being the most flamboyant in French history, it was a perfectly well-oiled machine that neither injury, nor expulsions, nor suspensions, managed to stop. On 12 July 1998, France soundly beat Brazil 3–0 in the Final. Key to the victory was when Jacquet pointed out to his players that Brazilian marking at set-pieces was somewhat suspect, and Zidane headed two goals in from corner kicks.[4]

Following the victory, Jacquet announced that he was leaving his position as manager of the French national team due to previous pressures and criticisms against him.[5] He then became technical director of French football in August 1998, a position which he held until his retirement in December 2006.[6]

Jacquet (top row, second left) with the AS Saint-Étienne Le Championnat winning team of 1968.

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Saint-Étienne

• Division 2: 1962–63
• Division 1: 1963–64, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70
• Trophée des Champions: 1967, 1968, 1969
• Coupe de France: 1967–68, 1969–70

Bordeaux

• Division 1: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87
• Coupe de France: 1985–86, 1986–87
• Trophée des Champions: 1987

France

• FIFA World Cup: 1998

Individual

• French Manager of the Year: 1981, 1984, 1998[11]
• French Manager of the Century[11]
• IFFHS World's Best National Coach: 1998[12]
• European Coach of the Year—Tommaso Maestrelli Award: 1998
• Onze d'Or Coach of the Year: 1998
• Berlin-Britz Manager of the Decade (1990s)[13][14]

• Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur: 1998[1]
• Officier of the Légion d'honneur: 2006[15]