Domenech, Raymond

Raymond Domenech is the son of Catalans who emigrated to France in 1936.

He began his career at the Olympic Lyon club, where he played under the guidance of Emé Jacquet . In Lyon, Domenech gained a reputation as a tough and sometimes rude player, for which he was nicknamed rivals "butcher." In 1977, he moved to the Strasbourg club, and in 1979 Domenech won the French championship with the team. In 1981 he moved to Paris Saint-Germain , then played for Bordeaux , who coached Emé Jacques, and then for Mulhouse , where he served as a playing coach.

Raymond Domenech became a coach back in 1985, heading the Mulhouse club. In 1988, he began coaching Olympic in Lyon, who was in the second division, but Domenech won first place in the second league in the first season and led the club into the first league. And in 1991, the club took 5th place in the championship and again was able to take part in the UEFA Cup matches . Another achievement of Domenech was the invitation to the club of Robert Duvern, who was responsible for preparing the French national teams for the Olympic Games .

In 1993, Domenech heads the youth team of France. With young football players, he twice wins the Toulon tournament and once the Casablanca Cup. With the team, he participates in the European Championships 6 times, but the highest achievement is reaching the final of the youth Euro in 2002 and the quarter-finals of the 1996 Olympics , and the French did not even qualify for the next two Olympics.

July 12, 2004 Domenech begins work with the first national team of France. He began by reforming the functioning of the entire team, saying in an interview with “Ekip”: “If you do not change anything, do not try anything, it will make you climb straight to the scaffold. Habits must be changed, which means that people must be changed. The French team does not belong to anyone ” ^[3] . The arrival of Domenech coincided with the departure of many participants in the victorious World and European Championships from the national team. But with the return to the Thuram national team, Claude Makelele and, above all, Zinedine Zidane , the team that did not pass the qualifying games very well still left the group from the first place. Another curious feature of Domenech was the concern for the players, the care that they did not give interviews to the press, and Domenech himself never publicly criticized his players.

Domenech is also known for trusting the predictions of astrologers ^[4] , because Scorpio Robert Pires ^[4] did not go to the 2006 World Cup , and for the same reason he was not taken to the mundial and Louis Julie ^{[5] [6]} , whom he preferred was Frank Ribery . Philip Mexes didn’t go to the tournament either , but not taken by Domenech for football reasons. In general, in the press the composition of the team was surprising. And France started very weakly, playing zero draws with Switzerland and South Korea , and then defeating Togo 2-0, as a result of which the team took only 2nd place and reached 1/8 in Spain , after which it was called “naive” ^{[ 7]} . But then the unexpected transformation of the team followed, first a victory over Spain , then over Brazil , and then over Portugal , and in the final only in a penalty shootout the team lost to Italy .

After this success, a new contract was signed with Domenech until 2010. He began the qualification of the Euro with a rematch over Italy - 3: 1. In the same period, new faces came to the team: Karim Benzema , Samir Nasri , Patrice Evra , but at the same time, Domenech closed the doors of the team in front of David Trezeguet , Philippe Mexes , Robert Pires and Louis Julie , allegedly because of a mismatch in horoscope . As a result of these changes, the French begin to perform worse and worse, play a draw with Ukraine and Scotland and leave the group only from second place. And at the tournament itself, the team ends up in the “death group”, in which it draws with Romania , loses 1: 4 to Holland and Italy 0: 2. After which Domenech became the target of criticism in the entire European press, the Times even called him “the worst Euro 2008 coach” ^[8] , while the Italian press was ironic over the decision of Domenech not to take Trezeguet ^[9] . But despite the criticism, despite the fact that the president of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalette, said that it was a “loud failure”, Domenech was officially dismissed on July 3, 2008.

“Damocles Sword” rose again over Domenech after the team lost to Austria , beat Serbia hard and tied with Romania in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, but here Domenech retained his post ^[10] . As a result, France took second place in the group and participated in butt games, where Ireland opposed it. The first game the French won 1-0, in the second in the main time the Irish won. Additional time was appointed, during which the goal was scored by William Gallas with a pass to Thierry Henry , who did not see the referee of the meeting ^[11] . Despite the fact that the French reached the final stage because of a violation of the rules, Domenech decided not to apologize to the Irish and not ask for a replay ^[12] , which the Irish insisted ^{on [13]} and requested by Henry ^[14] . Domenech received 862 thousand euros ^[15] for the national team entering the final stage of the tournament. On the eve of the championship, the French Football Federation announced that it would not renew the contract with the coach; his place at the end of the World Cup will take Laurent Blanc ^[16] .

“I think that Domenech is the worst coach of the French team since Louis XVI . If I could decide who will lead our team, I would choose Laurent Blanc . Last season, he managed to make Bordeaux the champion of France ” ^[17] . Eric Cantona after the butt games of France and Ireland.

In 2010, after a draw and defeat in two starting matches of the World Cup, Domenech was again criticized, he was criticized by former players of the national team Lizarazu ^[18] and Zidane ^[19] .

On June 19, national team player Nicolas Anelka, in response to criticism of Domenech and the threat of leaving him on the bench, told the coach: “Fuck you, you dirty son of a bitch.” To this, Domenech replied: “Well, you will go out onto the field”, after which Anelka said: “Naturally, it cannot be otherwise” ^[20] . On the same day, Anelka, who did not want to apologize ^[21] , was expelled from the national team by decision of the French Football Federation ^[22] . After being expelled, the captain of the national team, Patrice Evra, said: “The man among us has leaked this conversation. The point is not in Anelka, but in the fact that the informer was in the team ” ^[23] . The next day, there was a conflict between Evra, who said that the players would not train that day, and physical training coach Robert Duverne, as a result of which Duvern dropped accreditation for the World Cup and left, then all the players of the national team left the field. After the incident, Jean-Louis Valentin, the sports director of the national team, decided to leave the French Football Federation ^[24] . On the same day, Evra handed a letter to the national team attache, which was to be read in the presence of journalists ^[25] . The letter said that the players did not agree with the decision to be expelled from the national team Anelka, therefore, in protest, they missed one training session ^[26] .

In the last game, France lost to the South African team; at the end of the match, Domenech refused to shake hands with South African coach Carlos Alberto Parreira ^[27] because Parreira criticized him after playing with Ireland ^[28] .

In November 2010, Domenech led the children's team of the Boulogne-Billancourt club ^[29] .

As a player

Olympic (Lyon)

• French Cup Winner : 1973

Strasbourg

• Champion of France : 1979

Bordeaux

• Champion of France: 1984

As a trainer

France national team

• World Championship : 2006 ( silver )

• Raymond Domenech
• Article on humanite.fr
• Does the French team need such a coach?
• Article on espn.go.com