Stéphane Henchoz (; born 7 September 1974) is a Swiss

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 ...

coach and a former professional player who played as a

centre-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 ...

, most notably for the English club

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

72 times and played for the Switzerland national team from his debut in 1993, and played at

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Billens, Switzerland, Henchoz first came to notice playing in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

for

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

Blackburn Rovers

In June 1997, he turned down an opportunity to join

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, instead signing for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

for a fee of £3 million. Henchoz enjoyed a very successful debut Premiership season as Rovers finished sixth in 1997–98, although they were then relegated at the end of the 1998–99 season. Henchoz remained a Premiership player after being purchased for £3.5 million by

Liverpool

At Liverpool, Henchoz became a regular member of the first team during his five-and-a-half year stay at Anfield. Henchoz proved to be an inspirational signing and was popular with the Liverpool fans. He formed an effective central defensive partnership with

Sami Hyypiä Sami Tuomas Hyypiä (; born 7 October 1973) is a Finnish football manager and former defender. Hyypiä began his playing career with Ykkönen side Kumu and soon moved to Veikkausliiga outfit MyPa. He spent four years at the club, helping t ...

. This partnership played an important part in Liverpool's historic cup treble in 2001, although it was Henchoz's clumsy challenge on Martin O'Connor in the 90th minute of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

final against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

that led to extra time (the match itself was only settled on penalties). Henchoz is also remembered for inadvertently blocking a goalbound Thierry Henry shot with his arm in the 17th minute of that year's

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 ...

final, Liverpool then went on to win the match with two

Michael Owen Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. Since r ...

finishes. His last two seasons were interrupted due to spells of injury but he still surpassed the 200 mark of games for Liverpool in 2003–04. With injury problems and Gerard Houllier preferring

Igor Bišćan Igor Bišćan (; born 4 May 1978) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Croatia national under-21 team. In his playing career, he was a versatile player and could play almost every position in th ...

at centre half, Henchoz became something of a bit part player appearing as an occasional right back. Eventually, the Henchoz-Hyypiä partnership was rekindled in 2003–04, helping Liverpool to fourth place in the league.

Celtic

When

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who most recently managed club Everton. Benítez joined Real Madrid's coaching staff at the age of 26, going on to work as the under-1 ...

replaced

Gérard Houllier Gérard Paul Francis Houllier (; 3 September 194714 December 2020) was a French professional football manager and player. Clubs he managed include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, U ...

as manager, his decision to try versatile English defender

Jamie Carragher James Lee Duncan Carragher (; born 28 January 1978) is an English football pundit and former footballer who played as a defender for Premier League club Liverpool during a career which spanned 17 years. A one-club man, he was Liverpool's vic ...

in partnership with Hyypiä spelled an end to Henchoz's

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

career. Carragher, previously employed as a full-back, was a revelation at centre back and Henchoz consequently joined

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

on a six-month contract in January 2005.

Wigan Athletic

Upon the expiration of his Celtic contract, Henchoz opted to move back to the Premier League, signing a one-year contract with newly promoted

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

. He made 26 league appearances during the 2005–06 season as the club exceeded expectations with a top half finish. Henchoz also started for Wigan in the 2006 Football League Cup Final.

Return to Blackburn Rovers

Henchoz left Wigan after only a year, signing a contract until the end of the 2006–07 season back with Blackburn Rovers. He was used sparingly during the season to fill in for injuries, but performed suitably. His second spell at

came to an end on 19 May, when he was released by

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, and a ...

. Henchoz ended his career on 13 October 2008.

International career

Henchoz earned 72 caps for the Switzerland national team from his debut in 1993. He played for the country at

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and

. He was expected to play in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, but due to health problems he retired from international football on 31 March 2006.

Coaching career

After retiring, Henchoz became manager of

's U18 team which he was until June 2009. He then became manager of

FC Bulle FC Bulle is a Swiss football club, based in Bulle. Their home ground is the Stade de Bouleyres. History Founded in 1910, they last played in the Swiss top tier in 1992–93. That was ten years after their previous spell at the highest level. ...

for the 2009–10 season. In December 2015, he was appointed assistant manager of

Neuchâtel Xamax FCS Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club Serrières or Neuchâtel Xamax FCS () is a Swiss football club based in Neuchâtel. It was created in 1970 through a merger between FC Cantonal, founded in 1906 and Swiss champions of 1916, and FC Xamax fou ...

. On 6 February 2019, the club announced, that they had sacked Michel Decastel and Henchoz would take charge of the club for the rest of the season. At the end of March 2019 the club confirmed, that Henchoz would leave his position at the end of the season. On 27 May 2019, Henchoz was appointed manager of

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

for the upcoming 2019–20 season. He resigned on 4 November 2019 following a 3–0 loss to

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League. History Founde ...

, which was the fifth loss in six league games. In July 2020, he returned to Neuchâtel Xamax.

Career statistics

Honours

Liverpool *

: 2000–01 *

: 2000–01, 2002–03 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

; runner-up

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 2000–01 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

Celtic *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2004–05 Individual * Credit Suisse Player of the Year: 2001, 2002

References

External links

Player profile at LFChistory.net
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henchoz, Stephane 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from the canton of Fribourg Swiss men's footballers Association football central defenders Switzerland international footballers Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Hamburger SV players Liverpool F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players Premier League players Scottish Premier League players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2004 players Swiss-French people UEFA Cup winning players Swiss football managers FC Sion managers FA Cup Final players Swiss expatriate footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland