Corentin da Silva Martins (born 11 July 1969) is a French former professional

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 ...

who played as an

attacking 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 ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

of the Libya national team.

Playing career

Club

Martins was born in

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 ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, of Portuguese descent. He started his professional career with hometown club Stade Brestois 29, moving to

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or simply Auxerre (), is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division ...

in 1991 and being part of the emergent side led by legendary

Guy Roux Guy Marcel Roux (; born 18 October 1938) is a French former football player and manager known for being in charge of AJ Auxerre for more than 40 years and for leading the team to national and worldwide prominence. Managerial career A native of C ...

that in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

reached 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 ...

semi-finals and, four years later, achieved an historic

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

. On 30 May 1996, Martins signed with

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

in Spain. After an impressive first season in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, he lost his place in the squad due to injuries. He returned to France and its Ligue 1 in January 1998 by joining

RC Strasbourg Alsace Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (commonly known as RC Strasbourg, Racing Straßburg, RCSA, RCS, or simply Strasbourg; Alsatian: ''Füeßbàllmànnschàft Vu Stroßburri'') is a French association football club founded in 1906, based in the c ...

, captaining the side against Amiens SC in the 2001 final of 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 ...

which was won on penalties. After a loan spell at FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Martins returned to Strasbourg and remained there until 2004, finishing his career the same year after a few months with Clermont Foot.

International

Martins earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

on 27 March 1993, in a 1–0 win against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He represented the nation at

UEFA 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 made a total of 14 appearances, but his international career was eclipsed by the emergence of

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the mos ...

Coaching career

Martins started his managerial career in 2006 with lowly Quimper Cornouaille FC. In the following year he was named his first club's

director of football 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 ...

, but had a brief spell as interim coach at the beginning of the 2008–09 campaign. He subsequently stayed on as an assistant for the Ligue 2 team. Martins returned twice more as caretaker manager for Brest: during 2011–12, after Alex Dupont was dismissed, and again the following top-flight season when Landry Chauvin was shown the door. He managed to avert relegation on the first occasion, but failed decisively on the second, when he lost all of his eight matches in charge and suffered relegation to the second tier as last. On 8 October 2014, Martins was appointed manager of Mauritania. In January 2019, he extended his contract until 2021. Martins qualified the ''Lions of Chinguetti'' to the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2021 Africa Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2021 or CAN 2021), known as the TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's foo ...

, the former being a first-ever participation for the country. However, following a poor start to the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, he was relieved of his duties. On 11 April 2022, Martins replaced

Javier Clemente Javier Clemente Lázaro (; born 12 March 1950) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Forced to retire from playing in his early 20s through injury, he embarked on a coaching career with his first managerial ...

at the helm of another African nation,

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martins, Corentin 1969 births Living people French people of Portuguese descent Sportspeople from Brest, France French footballers Footballers from Brittany Association football midfielders Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Stade Brestois 29 players AJ Auxerre players RC Strasbourg Alsace players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Clermont Foot players La Liga players Deportivo de La Coruña players France international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players Brittany international footballers French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French football managers Ligue 1 managers Stade Brestois 29 managers Mauritania national football team managers Libya national football team managers 2019 Africa Cup of Nations managers French expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Mauritania Expatriate football managers in Libya French expatriate sportspeople in Mauritania