Franck Passi (born 28 March 1966) is a French retired

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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is the assistant manager of Ligue 1 club

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

Coaching career

Passi worked in a player recruitment role for one of his old clubs,

Olympique Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club pl ...

, between 2007 and 2010 before becoming Reserve Team Coach at the club in May 2010. In 2012, he was promoted again, this time as assistant coach to

Elie Baup Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked ...

. After the departure of Baup in December 2013, Passi continued his duties as assistant coach under

José Anigo José Anigo (born 15 April 1961) is a French football former manager and former defender. Career Anigo was born in Marseille, and after a tough childhood went on to play for his home town club for eight years where he established a reputation ...

, as well as under Argentine coach

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning "The Crazy Bielsa"; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. He is a forme ...

. In August 2015, after Bielsa left following defeat in the opening game of the season, Passi was appointed caretaker boss. In the one game of his tenure, his Ligue 1 debut away to Reims, the team lost 1–0. On 19 April 2016, Bielsa's successor Míchel was sacked on the day before 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 ...

semi-final against

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy S ...

, and Passi took temporary charge for the second time in the season. He won the game 1–0 through

Florian Thauvin Florian Tristan Mariano Thauvin (born 26 January 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Tigres UANL. He made his professional debut for Grenoble in 2011, moving on to Bastia where he won the Ligue 2 t ...

's goal. In the

2016 Coupe de France Final The 2016 Coupe de France Final decided the winner of the 2015–16 Coupe de France, the 99th season of France's all-main-divisions football cup. It took place on 21 May at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris. In the final, Olympique ...

, the team lost 4–2 to ''

Le Classique Le Classique (, The Classic) is the rivalry between French professional football clubs Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille. The duo are the two most successful clubs in French football, and the only French teams to have won major Eur ...

'' rivals

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

. Passi saved Marseille from relegation and led the club for exactly six months until October 2016, when

Rudi Garcia Rudi José Garcia (; ; born 20 February 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr. Early life Rudi Garcia's father, José, was a Spanish expatriate who played ...

was hired as Míchel's replacement following the club's takeover by

Frank McCourt Francis McCourt (August 19, 1930July 19, 2009) was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book ''Angela's Ashes'', a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. Early life and education Frank Mc ...

. In February 2017, Passi was named caretaker boss of fourth-from-bottom

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, to pave the way for Bielsa's arrival in the summer. On 24 January 2019, Passi was named caretaker coach of

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, following the suspension of

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...

. He oversaw the team for just one match, a 2–0 defeat to

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, before

Leonardo Jardim José Leonardo Nunes Alves Sousa Jardim (; born 1 August 1974) is a Portuguese football manager, currently in charge of Emirati club Shabab Al Ahli. He started working at the professional level at the age of 35, initially with Camacha and Cha ...

was installed as permanent coach. In January 2020, Passi was appointed as manager of Ligue 2 club Chamois Niortais until the end of the season following the departure of Pascal Plancque. He left at the end of the season, saying that he was preparing to be an assistant at

Laurent Blanc Laurent Robert Blanc (born 19 November 1965) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, and is currently the manager of Ligue 1 club Lyon. He has the nickname ''Le Président'', which was given to him ...

's new project. In December 2020, he became Blanc's assistant manager at

Al-Rayyan SC Al-Rayyan Sports Club () is a Qatari multi-sports club fielding teams in a number of sports such as football, futsal, basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics, table tennis, and swimming. It is based at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Umm Al ...

Personal life

Passi comes from a family of footballers. His father, Camille Passi, was a Congolese footballer, and coach in his later career. His son, Bryan Passi, is a professional footballer who also played for Montpellier. His brother, Gérald Passi, was also a professional footballer who played for the

France national football team The France national football team (french: Équipe de France de football) represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation (FFF; ), the governing body for football in France. It is ...

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * 1966 births Living people People from Bergerac, Dordogne Association football midfielders French footballers France under-21 international footballers French sportspeople of Republic of the Congo descent Montpellier HSC players Olympique de Marseille players Toulouse FC players SC Toulon players AS Monaco FC players SD Compostela footballers Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players La Liga players Segunda División players English Football League players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in England French football managers Olympique de Marseille managers Chamois Niortais F.C. managers Ligue 1 managers Ligue 2 managers Sportspeople from Dordogne Footballers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Qatar French expatriate sportspeople in England {{france-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub