Christian Gourcuff

Christian Gourcuff was born on April 5, 1955 in Hanvec, Brittany. At the beginning of the 1970s he played in the position of midfielder. He played football till the late 1980s. He became a coach when still rather young – at the age of 27. He is a former math teacher and a football theoretician. He is father of Yoann Gourcuff.

In 1982, Christian penned a playing coach contract at the age of 27. Under his charge Lorient reached the second division in four seasons. In 1983, his team was recognized as one of the best in France. But soon Christian left for Le Mans where he worked as playing coach in the third division. A bit later Christian began to make wide use of young players and eventually finished second in their division. Later, he had the same achievements with Lorient and Nantes.

A little later, Gourcuff made an experiment and decided to play in a Canadian league. Afterwards, he resumed coaching activity in Pont-L’Abbé. In 1991, he left the club after which he returned to Lorient which then was in the third league again. There, his team made a major breakthrough and got to the first division in 1998. He was awarded the Coach of the Year there and soon they made it to the elite. However, Christian and his team failed their season after which the coach joined Al-Ittihad from Qatar. In 2003, he returned to Lorient once again to reform the club (succeeded in doing so in 2006). Soon he extended his contract with the team till 2014 and helped them to return to the French Ligue 1.

Gourcuff managed Lorient for 11 years and left the club in 2014. Shortly after that he took charge of Algeria national team.