Patrice Lair (born 16 June 1961) is a French football coach. He is currently the manager of

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 ...

side

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

Career

As a footballer Lair played in the lower categories in France. After spending a decade in Stade Briochin and

US Avranches L’Union Sportive Avranches Mont Saint Michel is a French football club based in Avranches, in the department of Manche, and founded in 1897. Since 2014 it plays in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. The club has b ...

, in 1987 he moved to FC Périgueux where he had his first experience as a coach, coaching the junior team while playing in the first team. He repeated these functions in

US Saint-Malo Union Sportive Saint-Malo is a French association football club founded in 1901. They are based in the town of Saint-Malo and their home stadium is the Stade Marville. As of the 2017–18 season, they play in the Championnat National 2. Current ...

before making his debut as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

in USA Pouancé in 1993. He subsequently played and coached for Racing Doué, AC Pouzauges, Trélissac FC, ESA Briviste and Reims either as a player-coach or training junior teams, before retiring in 2001. After retiring he was appointed the assistant coach of Stade de Reims, which was promoted in 2002 to Ligue 2 after a decade in lower categories. After first coach Marc Collat was sacked in 2003 he was offered his position, but he declined the offer and moved to

AS Angoulême As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer * "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder * , a Spanish sports newspaper * , an academic male voic ...

as an assistant coach. In 2004, he held his first position as a first coach in CS Villeneuve, and in 2005 he made his debut in women's football, taking charge of defending champion

Montpellier HSC Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (), commonly referred to as Montpellier HSC or simply Montpellier, is a French professional football club based in the city of Montpellier in Occitanie. The original club was founded in 1919, while the current ...

. Under Lair's two-years tenure Montpellier won two national cups, reached the 2006 European Cup semifinals and was the championship's runner-up behind

FCF Juvisy Paris FC is a French women's football club based in Viry-Châtillon, a suburb of Paris. The club is the female section of Ligue 2 men's club Paris FC. The club was founded in 1971 and currently play in the Division 1 Féminine, the first divis ...

and Olympique Lyonnais. Lair subsequently returned to male amateur football, coaching Castelnau-le-Crès FC for two seasons. In 2009, he moved to

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

to coach Espoir de Savalou, but he left the team after a month. He also coached briefly the Rwanda under-17 national team, also serving as the senior team's assistant coach, the following year. In June 2010, Lair returned to France to coach Olympique Lyonnais women's team, replacing Farid Benstiti. He was nominated for the FIFA Women's Football World Coach award in 2011 and 2012. After the 2013–14 Division 1 Féminine season, Lair stepped down as the Coach of Olympique Lyonnais women's team, after achieving a third straight domestic double. He stated that it was the perfect way to leave. During his reign at Lyon, Lair led the club to four

titles, three

Coupe de France Féminine A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

titles and two

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

titles. On 28 May 2018, he was announced as the new head coach of Chamois Niortais. In December 2018 he was suspended, and he was formally sacked in January 2019. On 4 June 2019, he was announced manager of newly relegated Ligue 2 club

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 ...

for the 2019/20 season. After a poor start which saw the club in 14th place with nine points, he was sacked on 23 September 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lair, Patrice Living people 1961 births Sportspeople from Saint-Brieuc French football managers French footballers Association football midfielders Stade Briochin players US Avranches players US Saint-Malo players Trélissac FC players Stade de Reims players Olympique Lyonnais Féminin managers Paris Saint-Germain Féminine managers En Avant Guingamp managers Chamois Niortais F.C. managers Footballers from Brittany