Rémi Garde

French footballer (born 1966)

Rémi Garde
Garde managing Lyon in 2013
Personal information
Full name Rémi Garde[1]
Date of birth (1966-04-03) 3 April 1966 (age 58)[1]
Place of birth L'Arbresle, France
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Position(s) Defensive midfielder, centre back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1993 Lyon 146 (22)
1993–1996 Strasbourg 68 (3)
1996–1999 Arsenal 31 (0)
Total 245 (25)
International career
1990–1992 France 6 (0)
Managerial career
2011–2014 Lyon
2015–2016 Aston Villa
2017–2019 Montreal Impact
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Rémi Garde (French pronunciation: [ʁemi ɡaʁd], born 3 April 1966) is a French former professional footballer. He was most recently the head coach of Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer.

He played as a defender and defensive midfielder, spending most of his career with his first club Lyon, with whom he won the 1988–89 French Division 2. In 1993, he moved to Strasbourg, reaching the Coupe de France final and winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup in his second season. He joined Arsenal in 1996, where he won the 1997–98 FA Premier League before retiring through injury a year later. Garde was capped by the France national team, featuring in their squad at UEFA Euro 1992.[3]

Upon retirement as a player, he worked as a coach and assistant manager at Lyon, before taking the managerial position there in 2011. He won the Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions the following year, and left in 2014 for personal reasons. He was hired by Aston Villa in November 2015, and left five months later. He was hired by Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer in November 2017, and was sacked in August 2019.

Club career

Born in L'Arbresle, Rhône,[1] Garde started his playing career at nearby Lyon in 1982, helping the club achieve promotion to Ligue 1 in 1989.[4] Playing as a defensive midfielder or sweeper, he became club captain. Garde left Lyon in 1993 to join Strasbourg, where he spent three seasons and reached a Coupe de France final in 1995. In the summer, the team won the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup, defeating Austria's Admira Wacker in the final.[5]

He moved to England in August 1996, joining Arsenal after compatriot Arsène Wenger recommended him to the club; Wenger was not Arsenal's manager at this stage, as he was seeing out his contract at Nagoya Grampus. Garde joined on the same day as Patrick Vieira,[4] though unlike Vieira, the 30-year-old Garde was intended to be more of an experienced cover player rather than a future first-team regular.[4]

Garde became known for his tidy and reliable performances as backup for Vieira or Emmanuel Petit; he played a total of 45 matches over three seasons for Arsenal, and was a member of the Double-winning side of 1997–98,[4] making ten league appearances that season meaning he only narrowly qualified for a Premier League winners' medal. He also made one appearance during Arsenal's FA Cup run, which came in the quarter-final replay at West Ham United.[4] The game went to a penalty shootout and despite Garde missing his kick, Arsenal prevailed.[6] He was however not part of the squad as they won the 1998 FA Cup Final against Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium.

With age and a persistent knee injury limiting his appearances, Garde retired from professional football in June 1999, just after he had narrowly missed out on a second successive double with the club, who had finished second in the league and lost the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United.

International career

Garde made his debut for France at the 1990 Kuwait Tournament at the Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium in Kuwait City. His first appearance came against the hosts in a 1–0 win on 21 January. He won six caps for his country, and was a member of the French squad at Euro 92 but did not play at all in the competition, in which the French were eliminated at the group stage in Sweden.[4]

Coaching career

Lyon

After a period working as a pundit on French television, he rejoined his old club Lyon as a coach in 2003, and helped the club to win Ligue 1 titles in 2003–04 and 2004–05.[4] After the departure of Paul Le Guen as manager in the summer of 2005, Garde became assistant to his replacement Gérard Houllier.[4] In May 2007, with his contract due to expire, Garde was linked to a return to Arsenal as director of football, a new role created to replace that of the recently departed vice-chairman David Dein.[7]

In 2010, he worked as the director of the Centre Tola Vologe, Lyon's training complex. On 22 June 2011, he was appointed as Lyon's new manager to replace Claude Puel.[8]

While at the helm of Les Gones, Garde won the Coupe de France title of 2011–12 as well as the Trophee des Champions of the same year.[9][10] He left at the end of the 2013–14 season for personal and family reasons.[11]

Aston Villa

On 2 November 2015, Garde agreed a three-and-a-half year deal to become the manager of Premier League side Aston Villa who were bottom of the table.[12] Six days later, in Garde's first match in charge, his new team drew 0–0 with league leaders Manchester City.[13]

Garde put a strong emphasis on discipline at Villa. He dropped midfielder Jack Grealish from the first team after he went partying following a 4–0 loss at Everton and warned the team not to party excessively over the Christmas period.[14] On 29 March 2016, with Villa still bottom of the league, Garde left the club by mutual consent.[15]

Montreal Impact

After more than 18 months out of work, Garde was named coach of Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer on 8 November 2017.[16] In his first competitive fixture, away to fellow Canadians Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the Impact lost 2–1.[17] Montreal competed for a playoff position for much of Garde's first season. After a 1–0 loss to the New England Revolution on the final day of the regular season, the Impact failed to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs.[18]

Garde was sacked by Montreal on 21 August 2019, and replaced by former Houston Dynamo head coach Wílmer Cabrera.[19]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 17 August 2019
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref.
P W D L Win %
Lyon 22 June 2011 23 May 2014 168 85 38 45 050.6 [20]
Aston Villa 2 November 2015 29 March 2016 23 3 7 13 013.0 [12][20]
Montreal Impact 8 November 2017 21 August 2019 67 28 9 30 041.8 [20]
Total 258 116 54 88 045.0

Honours

Player

Lyon

Strasbourg

Arsenal

Manager

Lyon

References

  1. ^ a b c "Rémi Garde". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Garde: Rémi Garde: Manager". BDFutbol. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Remi Garde". Eurosport.com.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Seven things you might not know about prospective Aston Villa boss Remi Garde". Eurosport. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Strasbourg v Wacker" (in French). UEFA. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  6. ^ "West Ham 1 Arsenal 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)". Sporting Life. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  7. ^ "Wenger en froid avec ses ex".
  8. ^ "Lyon turn to Garde". Sky Sports. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b c "R. Garde". Soccerway. Global Sports Media. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  10. ^ Milligan, Jason (20 June 2011). ""En garde!" – Defending Rémi Garde and the potential problems at Lyon". French Football Weekly. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012.
  11. ^ "Lyon manager Remi Garde to leave Ligue 1 club". BBC Sport. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Remi Garde: Aston Villa confirm ex-Lyon boss as manager". BBC Sport. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  13. ^ "Aston Villa frustrate Manchester City as Rémi Garde makes instant impact". The Guardian. London. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Aston Villa boss Remi Garde: Christmas not a party time for us". ESPN FC. 4 December 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  15. ^ "Club statement: Rémi Garde". Aston Villa F.C. 29 March 2016. Archived from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  16. ^ Evans, Gregg (8 November 2017). "Ex-Aston Villa boss Remi Garde finally lands a new job". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  17. ^ "L'Impact s'incline à Vancouver contre les Whitecaps, en lever de rideau de sa saison 2018" [Impact fall in Vancouver against Whitecaps in 2018 season curtain-raiser] (in French). Radio Canada. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Season-ending loss to Revolution kills Impact's playoff hopes". Montreal Gazette. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  19. ^ "Montreal Impact part ways with head coach Remi Garde, hire Wilmer Cabrera | MLSSoccer.com".
  20. ^ a b c "Managers: Remi Garde". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  21. ^ "Remi Garde: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 16 April 2018.

External links

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