Stéphane Léoni (born 5 March 1976) 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 was most recently manager of Progrès Niederkorn.

Playing career

Léoni was born in Saint-Mihiel. A defender, he initially joined Metz as a youth player but failed to break through to the first team. After leaving the club in 1998 he sought to continue his career in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, signing for Bristol Rovers, where he spent two seasons and scored his only goal for the club in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie against Rotherham United in January 1999. In 2000, he had a four-month spell with Dundee United in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for 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' ...

before returning to France. Since then, he has spent a season each with CS Sedan Ardennes,

AS Beauvais Oise Association Sportive Beauvais Oise (; commonly referred to as AS Beauvais, ASBO, or simply Beauvais) is a French association football club based in Beauvais. The club was formed in 1945 as a result of a merger and currently play in the Championnat ...

, FC Rouen and

FC Sète FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

prior to rejoining his first club, Metz, in June 2006, before signed in summer 2009 for AS Cannes.

Coaching career

Returning to FC Metz in June 2012, Léoni was hired as a playing assistant coach. After manager Francis De Taddeo was fired on 15 September 2013, Léoni was appointed manager on interim basis. Léoni left Amiens 10 days later, as

Olivier Echouafni Olivier Echouafni (born 13 September 1972) is a French former professional footballer. He played as a midfielder for Ligue 1 team OGC Nice, among others. Coaching career Echouafni was the manager of Ligue 2 side Sochaux, before being removed ...

was hired. After a three-year spell as FC Trémery's manager, Léoni was appointed manager of

US Sarre-Union Union Sportive Sarre-Union is a French association football team founded in 1924, based in the town of Sarre-Union. Their home stadium is the Stade Omnisports in the town. As of the 2017–18 season they play in Championnat National 3, the fifth ...

in June 2018. He left the club in May 2020, in the wake of financial difficulties caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. At the end of November 2020, Léoni was appointed manager of Luxembourgian club FC Progrès Niederkorn, signing a deal until June 2023. However, after difficult second part of the 2021-22 season, Leóni left the club at the end of the campaign, one year before his contract expired.Leoni et le Progrès, c’est fin
mental.lu, 25 May 2022

References

External links

* 1976 births Living people People from Saint-Mihiel Footballers from Meuse (department) French men's footballers Men's association football defenders AS Beauvais Oise players FC Metz players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players FC Sète 34 players CS Sedan Ardennes players FC Rouen players AS Cannes players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Scotland French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Luxembourg Expatriate men's footballers in Luxembourg FC Differdange 03 players French football managers French expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Luxembourg FC Progrès Niederkorn managers {{france-footy-defender-1970s-stub