Gérard Houllier

Gérard Houllier

Gérard Paul Francis Houllier OBE (3 September 1947 – 14 December 2020) was a French football manager and player. His clubs include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2001. He then guided Olympique Lyonnais to two French titles, before announcing his resignation on 25 May 2007. He became manager of Aston Villa in September 2010. He also coached the France national team between 1992 and 1993, and assisted Aimé Jacquet in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

About Gérard Houllier in brief

Summary Gérard HoullierGérard Paul Francis Houllier OBE (3 September 1947 – 14 December 2020) was a French football manager and player. His clubs include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2001. He then guided Olympique Lyonnais to two French titles, before announcing his resignation on 25 May 2007. He became manager of Aston Villa in September 2010. He also coached the France national team between 1992 and 1993, and assisted Aimé Jacquet in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. In June 2011, he stepped down from club coaching, leaving his managerial role at Aston Villa, following frequent hospitalisation over heart problems. He was responsible for Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg, Germany’s RB Leipzig and American club New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Brasil, as well as the now dissolved Red Bull Ghana academies. He is the technical director of women’s football clubs OlympiqueLyonnais Féminin and OL Reign in November 2020. He died of a heart attack in Paris in December 2020. His funeral was held at the Stade de Reims on Sunday, December 14, at 2pm. He has been awarded the OBE for services to football by the French Football Federation and the French Academy of Sciences and Arts. His son, Jean-Michel, is a former French international footballer who played for Lille, Ligue 1 side Montpellier and Ligue 2 side Lille FC.

He won the UEFA Champions League with Lens in 1982 and the UEFA Cup with PSG in 1985. He helped Lens to promotion to the top division in 1982, before moving to PSG the following year. In 1988, he was appointed technical director and assistant to the Francenational team, under manager Michel Platini. In November 1993, he resigned after France failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals. In the 2011 book Secrets de coachs, he singled out winger David Ginola for blame in a crucial defeat to Bulgaria during the qualification campaign. Ginola filed a lawsuit against Houller for defamation, but this was dismissed by a French court in 2012. In July 1998 he was invited to become joint team manager of Liverpool, together with Roy Evans. The arrangement did not work out and Evans resigned in November after losing to Tottenham Hotspur 3–1 at home in the League Cup on 10 November 1998. In 1999, he began what he described as a five-year programme to rebuild the squad that had been labelled as the ‘Spice Boys’, starting in the summer of 1999. The club’s youth players were sold, while eight new players were signed: Sami Hyypiä, Stanné Hamann, Stéphane Henanné, Vladimír Sander, Camara, Sanderveer, Eric Meijer and Djorimi Traoré. That summer, Paul Pogba, James McAteer and Steve Harkness were all sold while Steve McManaman left on free transfer.