Henri Guérin (footballer)

Henri Guérin ( born August 27, 1921 in Montmirail, Marne département, † April 2, 1995 in Saint -Coulomb, Ille -et -Vilaine ) was a French football player and coach; 1962 to 1966 he coached France national team.

Playing career

In the club

Henri Guérin came up with seven years in the Breton homeland of his mother. At first he earned athletic merits rather than athlete than as a football player, even though he ran at La Tour d' Auvergne, a club from the Catholic sports movement FSGP in Rennes, both sports: during World War II and German occupation of France, he was Brittany champion over 100 m ( Best time: 11.1 seconds ) and the long jump, in which he in 1942 with 6.85m also set a record Breton. In the football season 1943/44, as in the French Division 1 regional selection teams competed instead of club teams, he played in the Équipe fédérale Rennes -Bretagne and then a few more months for Drapeau Fougères, before he returned to Rennes and at Stade Rennais Université Club turned pro. Guérin was a strong stamina and combative, technically not very talented, but equipped with a good game overview defender, who was first appointed to the senior team in 1948 ( see below). In the six years at Rennes Although no titles were to win, but at least there was enough there to a 4 (1948 /49) and a 5th place (1945 /46) in the top division.

In 1951 he moved to the capital club Stade Français, with which he returned a year later as second division champions in the Division 1, and 1953 for AS Aix - again in the Division 2 -, where he met Jean Prouff, already in Rennes, with whom he at the national team had played together. From 1955 to 1961, Henri Guérin worked as player-manager of Stade Rennes UC, which initially shuttled between first and second class ( climbs in 1956 and 1958, down 1957).

Stations

• La Tour d' Auvergne de Rennes ( to 1943 )
• Équipe fédérale Rennes -Bretagne (1943 /44)
• Drapeau de Fougères (1944 )
• Stade Rennais Université Club (1945-1951)
• Stade Français Paris (1951-1953, 1951/52 in D2)
• Association Sportive Aixoise (1953-1955, in D2)
• Stade Rennais UC (1955-1961, as player-coach; 1955/56 and 1957/58 in D2)

From 1948 135 games and 4 goals ( including 106 /3 for Rennes) in the top flight; There are no complete figures for the preceding years.

In the National Team

Early as 1942 he played for the Auswahlelf the Catholic Sports Association FSGP international against Portugal, also in the Breton national team at the Coupe des Provinces de France. From October 1948 to June 1949, Henri Guérin was also appointed to three A- international matches for the Équipe Tricolore; following a 1:5 defeat against Spain, after that of Guérin highly valued association sélectionneur (see below) Gabriel Hanot resigned, and the defender declared the end of its activity in the blue national jersey.

The coach

After time as player-coach at Stade Rennes Henri Guérin In 1961 the position of coach at Erstdivisionär AS Saint -Étienne on. In the championship, it was not going well for the Greens, but in the cup, the better: at the end of the season had to descend the ASSE, but could after a 1-0 final win over FC Nancy enter the list of winners of the Coupe de France. Guérin experienced this conflicting " seasonal peaks " but only from a distance, because he had been the end of March 1962 released early.

He was then (FFF ) was appointed in July 1962 by Football Federation as the successor of Albert Batteux to the post of national coach, however, was only responsible for the physical fitness of the players to 1964 - player selection and team's formation, subject to one or more Sélectionneurs, and their "strong man "was at that time Georges Verriest. After several successful appearances, like the 1:1 and 5:2 against England (qualification for Euro 1964) and their initial successes such as the 2-2 draw at West Germany (1962) and the 0-0 draw with the Spanish national team (1963 ), meant failure against Hungary in the European Championship quarter- finals setback for a first Guérin.

As a coach, he put - certainly from his own former role as a player of course - a lot of emphasis on physical toughness of his players, and he set the teams a more defensive. On the other hand, he introduced the well offensively oriented 4-2 -4 system at the Bleus, which prevailed in the mid- 1960s, with most of the internationally successful club and representative teams. In July 1964 - after the EM failure of the FFF managed the selection committee from - he became the first solely responsible coach of France - initially under the double name sélectionneur - Entraîneur - and in this role led Henri Guérin the Équipe Tricolore after victories against Luxembourg, . Norway and in particular the nemesis Yugoslavia for the World Cup finals in 1966, where, however, saw his team a fiasco: two goals and a lean spot ( against Mexico) in three encounters were the last place in the preliminary round group, to which had contributed that Guérin " between the system incompatible proposals of his two Cotrainer jasseron Domergue and vacillating. " Both players made ​​circles as well as in the domestic sports press the trainer was too defensive set-up and adjustment, which was based on Catenaccio accused; that he did not use a single minute, for example, a creative mind like Lucien Muller ( FC Barcelona) and Robert Budzynski, the rear back four organized at FC Nantes on a line, let play as an additional backup behind the defense, met with widespread incomprehension. Midfielder Robert Herbin (AS Saint- Étienne ) was quoted as saying: ". In the club we do not play these concrete tactics but score goals," When the coach not resigned saying the FFF replaced him in September 1966 on an interim basis by a successful Vereinstrainerduo, Jean Snella of AS Saint -Étienne and José Arribas from FC Nantes.

Henri Guérin trained in the period following the Jugendnationalelf ( espoir ) and in 1970 a member of the Direction Technique Nationale ( DTN ), a newly created Association Board. In this role, he gained great contributions to the promotion of young talent by building a process for systematic screening and training of talented young people; the entire " generation Platini " was out of this institutionalized and organized in cooperation with the professional clubs player development, their training camp Guérin personally directed. Until the 1986 World Cup the Breton was a member of the DTN also keep the French delegations at international matches.

His subsequent retirement he spent in Saint -Coulomb near Rennes, where he died at the age of 73 years. The power center of the Breton Football Association LBF in Ploufragan at Saint- Brieuc is named after Henri Guérin today.