OMG RAY! or, Lyon and Raymond Domenech are having an affair

By: Inara | April 26th, 2007

Instead of harping about how awful Lyon has been lately, today I’m going to take a trip back in time to when Lyon was still a backwater provincial club with a budget of about five dollars (mind you, this was only 20 years ago).

Lyon’s first silverware came in 1973, when they won the Coupe de France (their only silverware until 2001). And guess who was on that trophy winning team?

If you guessed Raymond Domenech, pat yourself on the back. Normally, Laurie deals with all matters concerning Ray, but since he is one of the men responsible for pulling Olympique Lyonnais out of Ligue 2 ignominy, and since he’s going to be a father for the second time, I thought he deserved at least one blog entry.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel recently put up a tribute to Domenech, a “Ligue 1 Legend.” Though everyone knows him as France’s eccentric national team manager, what a lot of people don’t know is that he also had a successful career as a player and then as a club manager.

The LFP doesn’t tell us the juicer things about him, like the fact that he’s an amateur actor and a firm believer in astrology (he supposedly doesn’t trust scorpios), but it does give us a nice overview of his professional background.

Born in Lyon, Domenech started his professional career at OL, staying there for eight years, where he won his first ever trophy, the Coupe de France. Though he eventually moved on to Strasbourg, he was remembered at Lyon for being a rough tackler and defender (his nickname was the “leg breaker”). His teammates at the time were Bernard Lacombe, currently Lyon’s “Special Adviser to the President,” and Aime Jacquet, the man who would eventually manage World Cup winning France in 1998 (Jacquet also became their manager at Lyon in the seventies).

The picture on the left is of Domenech in a Lyon kit.

Lyon73

Lyon’s trophy winning team in 1973. Domenech (2) and Lacombe (9).

Domenech eventually retired from playing, and a year later, he managed Ligue 2 club FC Mulhouse. Even though Mulhouse wasn’t able to make the jump into Ligue 1, Domenech’s managerial talent caught the all-seeing eye of Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of a software company who had just taken over at Lyon. At this point, Lyon was in Ligue 2 (they were sadly relegated in 1983) and hadn’t been able to return to the French top flight. But Aulas wanted more than a return to Ligue 1. He wanted Lyon in Europe in five years.

So Aulas appointed Domenech as manager and his former teammate, Bernard Lacombe, as sporting director.

Domenech2

Domenech as Lyon manager. Seated next to him is Lacombe.

Domenech didn’t waste time delivering on his promise because by the end of his first year, he dragged Lyon, kicking and screaming, into Ligue 1. Two years after that, Lyon clinched a UEFA cup spot. Unfortunately, the year after, Lyon almost got relegated, but hey, it happens to the best of managers.

By 1993, the French Football Federation appointed him as manager of France’s U-21 side. And in 2004, he became the manager of France’s national team.

Honor Though Domenech was replaced by Jean Tigana at Lyon, he is fondly remembered by the club, and he is invited to every one of Lyon’s title celebrations. He still maintains good relations with Aulas and Lacombe (though not with Gerard Houllier), and he even came to the ceremony when Aulas was awarded the French Legion of Honour.

His continued presence at the Gerland and his tendency to select 9 to 10 players from Lyon for France matches has caused managers of other Ligue 1 clubs to complain (they wonder why Domenech simply doesn’t sit with the Lyon ultras).

He says it’s because Lyon players have good team dynamics and that he knowns their technical staff, but some of his critics have accused him of favoritism. This was especially scrutinized during these past few months, when he publicly admitted that he selected ten Lyon players despite their particularly poor run of form (remember Jeremy Toulalan and Sidney Govou against Lithuania? Yeah).

Domenech doesn’t care. He loves Lyon.

Aww. We at the Gerland love you too, Ray. You make weird public statements, piss off players and managers, baffle supporters with your tactical choices, which sometimes have no logic to them, and basically just frustrate everyone within 100 miles of you.

BUT…you have always done what you think is best for your team, both for Lyon and later for the French NT. So thanks.