Michel André Yves Le Flochmoan (6 October 1951 – 10 August 2021) was a French professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager. After an amateur career as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

with Mouzon, , and Entente Carignan-Linay, he became a manager. He notably coached Sedan and

Virton Virton (; Gaumais: ''Viertån''; wa, Vierton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. It is also the administrative centre of the district (''arrondissement'') of the same name, as well as the princ ...

, as well as

Jeunesse Esch Jeunesse Esch (full name ''Association Sportive la Jeunesse d'Esch/Alzette'') is a football club, based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The side play in the National Division, the highest league in the country, and have won th ...

, which he coached to a championship in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. He then coached

Dudelange Dudelange (; lb, Diddeleng , german: Düdelingen) is a commune with town status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with 19,734 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border with France. , the town of Dudela ...

to championships in

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, and

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. He was coach of

Differdange Differdange ( lb, Déifferdeng or (locally) ; german: Differdingen) is a commune with town status in south-western Luxembourg, west from the country's capital. It lies near the borders with Belgium and France and it is located in the canton of ...

from 2012 to 2014, which won the

Luxembourg Cup The Luxembourg Cup () is the national knockout cup competition in Luxembourgian football. It was first held in 1922, and has been held annually since, with the exception of the four seasons during the German occupation during Second World War. W ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. He returned to Dudelange in 2015 and won the Luxembourg Cup in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Playing career

Le Flochmoan did not start playing football until the age of 15, when he began playing youth football with ES Pure-Messempré. He had previously been prohibited from playing the sport due to medical reasons. In 1973, he joined Mouzon as a

in the Division 3. He left the club following its merger with Sedan and joined US Maubeuge, where he stayed for two years. In 1976, he joined Entente Carignan-Linay, another amateur club where he played as a forward,

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 ...

, and defender. With the club, he won the Coupe des Ardennes in 1979. In 1980, the club was promoted to

Division 4 ''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first dramas to follow up on the enormous success o ...

following a victorious shootout against US Blagny. After playing four seasons in the Division 4, he retired from his career as a player in 1984.

Managerial career

During his final season at Entente Carignan-Linay, Le Flochmoan held the role of

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

. That season, the club finished with a record of seven wins, seven draws, and twelve defeats. In 1984, Le Flochmoan became manager of Sedan's B team, which won the Coupe des Ardennes in 1987. The following year, he took over the first team and coached within Division 3, which was not a professional league. In 1991, the club won the Division 3 against

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

. However, the promotion to Division 2 was difficult for the club. It narrowly escaped relegation in

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following a victory against

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

on the final day of the season. They finished 6th in

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and 14th in

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. He was fired shortly into the next season and replaced by

Christian Sarramagna Christian Sarramagna (born 29 December 1951) is a French football manager and former player. He is currently managing CS Hammam-Lif in the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1. Titles *As a player ** French championship in 1974, 1975, 1976 with AS ...

, although he had just signed a three-year contract. Additionally, he had just been named

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

of Sedan. After four months with no activity, Le Flochmoan was hired to be manager of the Belgian club . The club finished second in their group and qualified for the promotional tournament. They won against

RCS Braine Royal Cercle Sportif Brainois is a Wallonian Belgian football club from Braine-l'Alleud, Brabant. Founded in 1913, club is assigned matricule nr.75 and is one the oldest continuously existing clubs in the country. History The club was fo ...

in the first round, but were defeated by Tienen-Hageland in the second round and were not promoted. He did not re-sign with the club. In 1996, Le Flochmoan was signed by

to coach the

Belgian Third Division The Belgian Third Division ( nl, Derde klasse, french: Division III) was the third highest level in Football in Belgium, Belgian football. It had two leagues of 18 teams each (Belgian Third Division A, A and Belgian Third Division B, B) at the sam ...

team. The team won the division in 2001 after finishing as runners-up the previous year. Virton was promoted to the

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

for the 2002 season, and it subsequently qualified for the

2002–03 Belgian Cup The 2002–03 Belgian Cup was the 48th season of the main knockout competition in Belgian association football, the Belgian Cup. For the first time the quarter-finals were played in two legs. Final rounds The final phase started in the round of 3 ...

, where it was defeated by

Genk Genk () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. I ...

in the first round. In June 2003, he joined the

Luxembourg National Division The National Division ( lb, Nationaldivisioun, french: Division Nationale, german: Nationaldivision) is the highest football league in Luxembourg. Until 2011, it was known as the BGL Ligue, after the Luxembourg Football Federation managed to sea ...

in his new coaching job with

. In his first season with the club, they won the division championship. The following year, he joined

. He led the team to qualify for second qualifying round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

in the 2005–06 season, a feat never before achieved by a football club in the country. The club was eliminated by

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

. Dudelange won the National Division Championship every year from 2005 to 2009. He left the club following the 2009 season. Le Flochmoan engaged in contract negotiations with

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

, but he ultimately signed with Arlon again in June 2009. However, he resigned in January 2010 citing sporting and financial problems. In August 2010, he was nearly selected to succeed

Guy Hellers Guy Hellers (; born 10 October 1964) is a Luxembourgish football manager and former player, who played as a midfielder. He was the head coach of the Luxembourg national team, having succeeded Dane Allan Simonsen in 2004. In 2010, Hellers r ...

as coach of the Luxembourg national team, but he did not ultimately get the job. In November 2011, talks fell through with

Pétange Pétange (; lb, Péiteng, ; german: Petingen) is a Communes of Luxembourg, commune and town in south-western Luxembourg. It is part of the Esch-sur-Alzette (canton), canton of Esch-sur-Alzette. Pétange lies on the borders with both Belgium and F ...

. On 4 June 2012, Le Flochmoan returned to the Luxembourg National Division, signing a contract with

for two years. The team finished fourth in

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and qualified for the

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevil ...

. The team reached the third round before it was defeated by

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

on penalty shots. It was then a finalist for the

, losing to Le Flochmoan's former club Jeunesse Esch. The team won the 2014 Luxembourg Cup against Dudelange, and he subsequently stepped down as coach. However, he returned to Dudelange in June 2015 and won the 2016 Luxembourg Cup. He was not retained by the club and replaced by

Dino Toppmöller Dino Nicolas Toppmöller (born 23 November 1980) is a German football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of German Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt. Managerial career In June 2016, Toppmöller became manager of F91 Dude ...

Death

Le Flochmoan died on 10 August 2021, at the age of 69.

Honours

Player

Entente Carignan-Linay * Coupe des Ardennes: 1978–79

Manager

Sedan B * Coupe des Ardennes: 1986–87 Sedan * Division 3: 1990–91 Virton *

Belgian Third Division B The Belgian Third Division B was one of the two leagues at the third level of the Belgian football league system, the other one being the Belgian Third Division A. This division existed from the 1952–53 until 2015–16 seasons and was played ever ...

: 2000–01 Jeunesse Esch *

: 2003–04 Dudelange *Luxembourg National Division: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09 *

: 2015–16 Differdange *Luxembourg Cup: 2013–14 Individual *Coach of the Decade of the

Province of Luxembourg Luxembourg (french: Luxembourg ; nl, Luxemburg ; german: Luxemburg ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; wa, Lussimbork), also called Belgian Luxembourg, is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the country of Luxembourg to the ea ...

: 2000–2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Flochmoan, Michel 1951 births 2021 deaths Sportspeople from Ardennes (department) French footballers Association football forwards AC Mouzon players French Division 3 (1971–1993) players French Division 4 (1978–1993) players French football managers CS Sedan Ardennes managers R.E. Virton managers Jeunesse Esch managers F91 Dudelange managers FC Differdange 03 managers French Division 4 (1978–1993) managers French Division 3 (1971–1993) managers Ligue 2 managers French expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate football managers in Luxembourg French expatriate sportspeople in Luxembourg Footballers from Grand Est