Eric Serge Armand Roy (born 26 September 1967) is a French former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and current manager of

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

side

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

Early life

Eric Serge Armand Roy was born on 26 September 1967 in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, Alpes-Maritimes.

Playing career

Roy began playing professional football with

OGC Nice Olympique Gymnaste Club Nice Côte d'Azur (), commonly referred to as OGC Nice or simply Nice, is a French professional football club based in Nice. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football. ...

. During his spell in England with Sunderland, he scored once, in a 5–0 win over Walsall in the League Cup.

Coaching and management career

Nice

After retiring, in September 2005 Roy was hired as director of marketing, communication and public relations at his last club

. In September 2008, he changed position to director of development and public relations. One year later, he was promoted as sporting director. In March 2010, he was appointed manager of Nice, alongside of a coach holding the professional trainer diploma, which Roy didn't. In addition to his function as sports director, Roy would receive a salary over 13 months of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

17,500 in addition to bonuses.Le licenciement de l'ancien directeur sportif de l'OGC Nice était abusif
avosports.fr, 16 June 2014 He stepped down from the position in November 2011 by mutual agreement while retaining his duties as sports director.

Sacking and prosecution

After a phone call in May 2012 for a prior interview, he was officially dismissed for serious misconduct on 11 June 2012. At the end of the dismissal letter, Roy was accused of having made a 12-day trip to Argentina with an unlicensed agent despite opposition from management and without prior preparation. Contesting the reasons for his dismissal, the employee applied to the Nice Labor Court, which by judgment in June 2013, said that the dismissal had no real and serious cause and condemned the employer for payment of the sums of €22,159 in addition to paid leave relating thereto as a reminder of salary, €97,500 in addition to paid vacation relating thereto as compensation in lieu of notice, €113,750 in severance pay, €37,573 in addition to paid vacation relating to it match and classification bonuses, €90,000 in addition to paid holidays relating thereto as maintenance bonus, €300,000 as damages for unfair dismissal, €3,000 on the basis of the provisions of article 700 of the code of civil procedure besides whole costs. OGC Nice appealed against that judgment, arguing, first, that Roy should not have received his second remuneration as supervisor from November 2011 to the extent that it was agreed that he would give up, from this date, the daily management of the first team to occupy only its function of sports director. Nice considered, secondly, that the dismissal was perfectly regular, even in the absence of prior referral to the Legal Commission of the Professional Football League, and this insofar as its employee was not covered by the charter professional football, but the collective agreement for administrative and similar football staff (CCPAAF). Thirdly, the Club considered that the dismissal of Roy was perfectly justified in view of his insubordination and his lack of loyalty. The case ended with Nice paying Roy nearly €300,000 for a wrongful dismissal.

Lens

On 30 September 2017, he was appointed sporting director of

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

. He left the position in April 2019.

Watford

In December 2019, Roy took the role of sporting director at

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Brest

On 3 January 2023, Roy became the manager of

side

Stade Brestois 29 Stade Brestois 29 or simply Brest, is a French football club based in Brest. It was founded in 1950 following the merger of five local patronages, including Armoricaine de Brest, founded in 1903. In its early years, the club made a rapid rise ...

TV

In 2012, he became a consultant for the sports channel

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

where he was a consultant in the program Le Club from Monday to Thursday at 7 p.m. and Friday during the pre-match and the post-match of the Ligue 1 games with Florian Genton. He left the position in 2017.Éric Roy nouveau consultant de France Télévisions
lequipe.fr, 2 October 2019 From 2019, he became a consultant for

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (former ...

. He was a commentator on the matches of the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

and the

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

with Kader Boudaoud (until December 2019) and later Fabien Lévêque.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Eric 1967 births Living people Footballers from Nice French footballers Association football midfielders OGC Nice players SC Toulon players Olympique Lyonnais players Olympique de Marseille players Sunderland A.F.C. players ES Troyes AC players Rayo Vallecano players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Premier League players La Liga players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French football managers OGC Nice managers Stade Brestois 29 managers Ligue 1 managers Association football coaches Watford F.C. non-playing staff