Yvon Pouliquen (born 17 October 1962) is a French
football manager and former footballer. He played as a
defensive 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 boundari ...
for 14 seasons (all but one in
Ligue 1) and made 455 appearances in the French league. He then spent several years as a manager, and won back-to-back
Coupes 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 ...
, in 2001 with
Strasbourg and in 2002 with
Lorient
Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France.
History
Prehistory and classical antiquity
Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...
, as well as a taking
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 ...
to the quarter finals in 2008.
Playing career
Born in
Morlaix
Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Leisure and tourism
The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overha ...
,
Finistère
Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090. , France, Pouliquen started his playing career aged 15 at
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
* Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
* Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
** Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Br ...
. He made his first team debut aged 19, as a half-time
substitute against
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...
in
Ligue 1, and scored within ten minutes of entering the field of play.
He spent a further five seasons with Brest, two with
Laval, and another two with
Saint-Étienne before joining
Strasbourg, then in
Ligue 2. He helped them to promotion to Ligue 1 via the playoffs in his first season at the club, scored the goal against local rivals
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 ...
which put the club into the
1995 Coupe de France Final
The 1995 Coupe de France Final was a football match held at Parc des Princes, Paris on May 13, 1995. Paris SG defeated RC Strasbourg 1-0 on a goal by Paul Le Guen.
Match details
See also
*Coupe de France 1994-95
External linksCoupe de ...
, and in his final year as a player helped them qualify via the
Intertoto Cup
The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...
for the
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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
and reach the last 16. He also
captained the club.
Managerial career
At the end of his first team playing career, Pouliquen joined the coaching staff under manager
Jacky Duguépéroux at
Strasbourg, though he continued to play occasionally for the
reserve team
In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...
. In December 1997 he took over as reserve team coach, a post he held until his appointment as first team manager in November 2000. His tenure lasted only until the end of the
2000–01 season, in which Strasbourg won 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 ...
but were relegated to Ligue 2.
Pouliquen took over as manager of
Lorient
Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France.
History
Prehistory and classical antiquity
Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...
in January 2002, leading them to their first final of the
Coupe de la Ligue as well as their first major trophy in the
2002 Coupe de France.
When he joined, the club were in the relegation positions, and he was unable at any stage to lift them out of the bottom three places, so for the
second consecutive season he combined the cup win with relegation from the top flight.
[ The following season Lorient made their first ever appearance in European competition, entering at the first round stage of the ]2002–03 UEFA Cup
The 2002–03 UEFA Cup was the 32nd edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, the second-tier European club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2003 UEFA Cup Final, final was played between Portuguese side FC Porto ...
, only to lose on the away goals rule to Denizlispor
Denizlispor, due to current sponsorship Altaş Denizlispor, is a Turkish sports club based in Denizli. It is known by its distinct green and black colors. The club's branches include football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, and gymnastics. ...
. At the end of the 2002–03 season Lorient narrowly failed to win promotion back to Ligue 1, and Pouliquen was replaced by Christian Gourcuff.[
In June 2004 Pouliquen took over as manager of ]Guingamp
Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 6,895 as of 2017, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Gui ...
, newly relegated to Ligue 2. Though the club had expected immediate promotion, and were disappointed with seventh place in the 2004–05 season, an excellent home record gave the manager a period of grace, but a poor start to the 2005–06 season provoked his dismissal in September 2005.
He then had a spell as manager of Grenoble Foot 38
Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a French association football club based in Grenoble. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the city, and wears whit ...
in the 2006–07 season before joining FC Metz
Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...
in December 2007 with the club bottom of Ligue 1. He was replaced by Joël Müller at the end of the 2009–10 season. In September 2010, he returned to Grenoble. Against a background of financial difficulty and a transfer embargo, Pouliquen was unable to prevent relegation to the third tier. He left at the end of the season, and Grenoble were administratively relegated a further two divisions because of its insolvency.
Pouliquen went on to become a players' agent.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pouliquen, Yvon
1962 births
Living people
People from Morlaix
Sportspeople from Finistère
Footballers from Brittany
Association football midfielders
French footballers
Stade Brestois 29 players
Stade Lavallois players
AS Saint-Étienne players
RC Strasbourg Alsace players
Ligue 1 players
French football managers
RC Strasbourg Alsace managers
FC Lorient managers
En Avant Guingamp managers
Grenoble Foot 38 managers
FC Metz managers
Ligue 1 managers
Brittany international footballers