Jocelyn Merlen (born 24 November 1972) is a French former

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 ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Playing career

Merlen never played in a professional division during his career, but participated in the 2000 Coupe de France final with

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

. The final score eventually turned out to be a 2–1 victory in the favor of

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

. Earlier in the tournament, he scored the game-winning goal off a free-kick in their 2–1 win over top-flight

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

in the quarter-finals. Merlen participated in a commemorative rematch against Nantes 20 years later at the Stade de l'Épopée in Calais.

Managerial career

In April 2023, Merlen was sacked as the manager of

Régional 1 The Régional 1 (previously known as ''Division d'Honneur'') is the common generic name for the highest level association football, football league competitions run by each of the 13 French football league system#Regional Leagues, Regional Lea ...

club Grand Calais Pascal FC.

Honours

Calais *

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 ...

runner-up: 1999–2000

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people French men's footballers Men's association football defenders Calais RUFC players USL Dunkerque players Union Sportive Gravelines Football players Championnat National players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players French football managers Sportspeople from Calais Footballers from Pas-de-Calais {{France-footy-defender-1970s-stub