Eric Descombes (born 25 June 1971) is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

manager and former player. Born in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

, he was naturalized by Mauritania and participated with the Mauritanian national team in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

qualifiers for

Germany 2006 The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won ...

. He spent his career between Europe and the United States, playing with clubs such as

Chico Rooks The Chico Rooks were an American soccer team, founded in 1993 by Dave Stahl and Eric Snedeker. The team was a member of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2006. Initially, the team's ma ...

Cascade Surge Cascade Surge was an American soccer team based in Salem, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1995, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009, when the franchise folded an ...

, Sacramento Scorpions,

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

New Orleans Storm The New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers was an American soccer club that competed in the USISL from 1993 to 1999. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the club was renamed the New Orleans Storm in 1998. The team folded after the 1999 season. History On M ...

Cincinnati Riverhawks The Cincinnati Riverhawks were a professional soccer team that debuted in the USISL Premier Development League in 1997 and joined the A-League from 1998 to 2003. They played their games at Galbreath Field in Kings Mills, Ohio and later at the Ha ...

and

Indiana Blast Indiana Blast was an American soccer team, founded in 1996. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues, played in the USISL and A-League (1997–2004) until folding at the end of the 2004 season. The Blast played their home games at Kun ...

. He capped twice for the Mauritanian national team and played in 169 games at the professional level, scoring 16 times. Descombes started his professional coaching career in the A-League with the Cincinnati Riverhawks as a player-assistant coach and with the Indiana Blast as a head coach. He was the head coach and GM with

Africa Sports d'Abidjan Africa Sports d'Abidjan is an Ivorian multi-sports club founded in 1947 and based in Abidjan. The club fields teams in the sports of track and field, handball, basketball and association football, of these the football team is the most prominen ...

in Ivory Coast (2012/2013 season). He was named as the new national team coach and technical director of the Central African Republic, shortly after. The team participated in the CEMAC Cup in December 2013, while the civil war just had started. He led the team to a final appearance, after defeating Chad (1–0), Congo (1-0), and Cameroon (1-0), but falling to host country Gabon (0–2) in the final. In January 2017, Descombes was named as the Director of Football with FC Mulhouse in France, overseeing the club's entire sport side, from the youth academy to the first team. In July 2018 he was named as the club's new manager.In his first season at the helm, he won the league championship and promotion to the next division, and a coach of the year accolade. .

References

1971 births Living people Footballers from Yaoundé Cameroonian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Canon Yaoundé players Diamant Yaoundé players Chico Rooks players Cascade Surge players Sacramento Scorpions players Southend United F.C. players New Orleans Storm players Cincinnati Riverhawks players Indiana Blast players USISL players A-League (1995–2004) players Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Cameroonian football managers Player-coaches Central African Republic national football team managers Cameroonian expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States Expatriate football managers in Ivory Coast Expatriate football managers in the Central African Republic Cameroonian people of French descent People with acquired French citizenship French men's footballers Olympique Lyonnais players Toulouse FC players French football managers FC Mulhouse managers French expatriate football managers French sportspeople of Cameroonian descent Naturalized citizens of Mauritania Mauritania men's international footballers Mauritanian men's footballers USL Second Division players USL First Division players National Premier Soccer League coaches {{Mauritania-footy-bio-stub