Reynald Pedros (born 10 October 1971) is a French professional football manager and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who played as a

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 ...

. He currently manages the Morocco women's national team.

Club career

Pedros was born in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and 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 ...

, formed in Nantes. He was part of the magic trio of

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, as ...

with Patrice Loko and

Nicolas Ouédec Nicolas Pierre Ouédec (born 28 October 1971) is a retired French professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Lorient, Morbihan, Ouédec was a product of FC Nantes's famous youth academy. He made his Ligue 1 debuts at ...

. He won the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

title with Nantes in 1995. The following year he reached the semi-finals 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 competi ...

International career

Pedros represented the France national team. His career bears some similarity to

David Ginola David Ginola-Ceze (born 25 January 1967) is a French former professional footballer who has also worked as an actor, model and football pundit. A former forward, Ginola played football for ten seasons in France before moving from Paris Saint-G ...

's – a mistake in the last

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

qualifying match leading to French elimination, and subsequently being dropped from the national team. Before

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 ...

, he was considered one of the best French midfielders, on par with

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 ...

, and was selected for the tournament. France reached the semi-final to face the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, and the two teams could not be separated over ninety minutes. The match thus went into

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

and subsequently a penalty shoot-out. After five successful penalties for each team, Pedros was to take the first of the penalties in sudden death. His shot was weak and slow, and was easily saved by the Czech goalkeeper, Petr Kouba.

Miroslav Kadlec Miroslav Kadlec (born 22 June 1964) is a Czech former professional football defender. During his career, Kadlec played for four Czech clubs, and also had an eight-year stint with Bundesliga's 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where he was crowned league ...

came to take the next penalty, scored it, and knocked France out of the tournament. Following this elimination, Pedros was made a pariah by the media and was greatly disliked by French fans. He attempted to make a comeback, in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue ...

, but he was never able to come back to the top of his game.

Managerial career

On 2 June 2017, Pedros took over as head coach of

Olympique Lyonnais Féminin Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (; commonly referred to as Olympique Lyon, Lyon, or simply OL) is a French women's football club based in Lyon. The club has been the female section of Olympique Lyonnais since 2004. It is the most successful club ...

. He led them to retain the

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twel ...

championship for the 12th and 13th time. He also succeeded in guiding the team to retaining the UEFA Women's Champions League for the 3rd and 4th time. In November 2020, Pedros became the coach of the Moroccan women's national team. This recruitment takes place in the context of the massive effort made by the FRMF and its President Fouzi Lekjaa to develop women's football in Morocco, particularly mass football, with the aim of becoming a stronghold of women's football at continental and world level. His first tournament was the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which would mark a historic milestone as he guided Morocco to reach the final of the WAFCON for the first time in its only third appearance, including the famous penalty win over African titan

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

in the semi-finals, which was seen as a redemption for his penalty defeat in Euro 1996.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pedros goal''.

Honours

Manager

Lyon *

: 2017–18, 2018–19 * Coupe de France Féminine: 2018–19 * UEFA Women's Champions League: 2018–19, 2019–20

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedros, Reynald 1971 births Living people Footballers from Orléans French footballers Association football midfielders FC Nantes players Olympique de Marseille players Parma Calcio 1913 players S.S.C. Napoli players Olympique Lyonnais players Montpellier HSC players Toulouse FC players SC Bastia players Al-Khor SC players Ligue 1 players Serie A players Qatar Stars League players Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in football Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for France France under-21 international footballers France international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players French football managers Olympique Lyonnais Féminin managers French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Qatar Expatriate footballers in Switzerland French expatriate sportspeople in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Qatar French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French people of Spanish descent Women's national association football team managers