Les Verts
Rudi Garcia was the coach of which team from 2001 to Jun 2001?
Rudi Garcia Rudi José Garcia ( ; ) , born 20 February 1964 ) is a French professional football manager and former player . He was last the manager of Ligue 1 club Lyon . Early life . Rudi Garcias father , José , was a Spanish expatriate who played football at a professional level for Sedan and Dunkerque . His grandparents had left Andalusia for the Ardennes region during the Spanish Civil War . Garcia is named after German cyclist Rudi Altig . Between 1992 and 1994 , Garcia enrolled for university , and gained a DEUG and a STAPS degree at Orsay , as well as French qualifications that entitled him to manage a youth training centre . Club career . When José became the coach of local team Corbeil-Essonnes , he drafted his son into the squad , where Rudi played until cadet level . As Corbeil-Essonnes did not have a national cadets side , Rudi joined the Viry-Châtillon team . He was 18 when he obtained his baccalauréat and signed for Lille , where he would spend two years as an intern and four as part of the professional squad . Playing as an attacking midfielder , Garcias first goal for Lille was a notable affair . In December 1984 , Lille travelled to the Parc des Princes to face Paris Saint-Germain . With both sides tied at 2–2 , Garcia netted to earn his side a win over the Parisian club . He made about 170 appearances for the Northern club , which he left in 1988 . After Lille , Garcia joined Caen , where he was coached by Robert Nouzaret and Daniel Jeandupeux . In 1991 , he opted to join Martigues rather than signing on with the Normandy club . Serious injuries to his back and knee forced him to retire from professional football at the age of 28 , in 1992 . Managerial career . Early career . In 1995 , Garcia returned to Corbeil to manage the Division dHonneur side with two months remaining in the season . He guided the club out of relegation . Then , in the seasons that followed , one ended with the club in mid-table and another in a second-place finish . Between 1994 and 1996 , Garcia acted as player-manager for the club before taking on managerial duties only between 1996 and 1998 . In the late 1990s , for two years he was a physio . Then , he became a scout , studying opponents and assisting in the elaboration of Saint-Étiennes tactics . Gradually , his role shifted to that of an assistant coach , a position he occupied alongside Nouzaret as from July 2000 and John Toshack afterwards . In early 2001 , when Toshack returned to Spain , Garcia took over first-team duties in collaboration with Jean-Guy Wallemme . Les Verts were then in the midst of a miserable season . Poor performances on the pitch were compounded by the clubs implication in various affairs involving forged passports . The Garcia/Wallemme duo failed to reverse the trend and , in May 2001 , Saint-Étienne were effectively relegated to the French second division . The following month , Wallemme left the club while Garcia was fired in August 2001 . The two men , a decade later , would manage Lens and Lille respectively . Garcia resumed his activities as a football pundit . At the same time , he was passing his Diplôme dEntraineur Professionel de Football , the French equivalent of the professional coaching badge . In the spring of 2002 , he was contacted by Dijon and signed with them on 21 May 2002 . He helped the club to climb to Ligue 2 in 2003–04 . The Bourgogne club even appeared in the semi-final of the Coupe de France , where Châteauroux defeated it 2–0 . In June 2007 , Garcia left Dijon for Le Mans , another club he set on to transform in just one season . With players such as Romaric , Marko Baša and Yohann Pelé , the Sarthe club played some pleasant football which brought results as well . Le Mans ended in ninth position of Ligue 1 standings and reached the Coupe de la Ligue semi-final . Lille . On 18 June 2008 , Garcia rescinded his contract with the club to join Lille , the club where he had spent six years as a player in the 1980s . In his first season , the North France club developed a stylish and attacking approach , contrasting with previous coach Claude Puels cautious and often boring tactics . Garcias approach ostensibly enabled players such as Ludovic Obraniak and Michel Bastos to develop , the latter becoming the clubs top scorer in the league with 14 goals . Garcia also gave significant playing time to promising youngster Eden Hazard , later of Chelsea and Real Madrid . On 2 June 2009 , the board of directors sacked Garcia , who had just led the club to their best league finish for three years and qualified it for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League . It was alleged that the sacking was due to differences of opinion between the manager and a member of the board , Xavier Thuilot . The latter himself was sacked from the board later in the month and on 18 June 2009 , Michel Seydoux , the club president and major shareholder , offered the manager position again to Garcia , who accepted . Aimé Jacquet , at the time , expressed his belief that the Nemours-born coach was one of the brightest prospects among French football managers . In a country otherwise reputed for the defensive approach approved by most of its coaches , Garcia is seen , together with former Paris Saint-Germain manager Antoine Kombouaré , as part of a small group of managers who advocate attacking football as the best means to achieve results . In the 2009–10 season , Lille continued to improve in the league , finishing one place above their fifth-place finish of 2008–09 . With 72 goals scored , the club had the divisions best attack , even bettering champions Marseille . This led French media and pundits to dub the entertaining side the Barça of the North . The 2010–11 season was the clubs breakthrough . In May , Garcia led les Dogues to triumph in the Coupe de France against Paris Saint-Germain , their first win in the trophy since 1955 . The same month , on 21 May , the league and cup double was complete , again after a game against PSG that ended in a 2–2 draw . In the Trophées UNFP du football , Garcia was awarded the prize for best Ligue 1 coach of the 2010–11 season . During the ceremony , he dedicated his trophy to his late father José , even saying a few words in Spanish as a tribute to his fathers origins . Roma . On 12 June 2013 , Roma President James Pallotta announced that Garcia had been appointed the new manager of the club , news that was initially received very cautiously by Roma fans . Roma began the 2013–14 season by winning its first ten Serie A matches . The previous best ever start in the history of the Serie A belonged to Juventus in the 2005–06 season , when the Turin club won its first nine Serie A matches . Romas perfect start to the 2013–14 Serie A season included a 2–0 derby win over city rivals Lazio , a 3–0 away victory against Internazionale and a 2–0 home win over title rivals Napoli . During this ten-match winning run , Roma scored 24 goals while conceding just one goal , away to Parma . Its Serie A ten-match winning streak came to an end on 3 November 2013 when it was held to a 1–1 draw at Torino . During that match , Roma conceded its first goal in 743 minutes of Serie A football . Roma , however , eventually finished second in the Serie A , a massive 17 points behind champions Juventus . In finishing second , Roma qualified for the following seasons UEFA Champions League ; its last appearance in the Champions League had been during the 2010–11 season . Before the start of the 2014–15 season , Garcia asked to bring in young talents and also experienced players for squad depth ahead of the next season . Roma has had an impressive summer transfers activity , where they bought young talent Juan Iturbe , Salih Uçan and Antonio Sanabria . Roma also signed Italian defender Davide Astori and veteran players Ashley Cole and Seydou Keita . Garcias men began the 2014–15 Serie A campaign with 2–0 win over Fiorentina , with goals from Radja Nainggolan and Gervinho . Roma continued their winning form and won the second fixture in the league 1–0 against Empoli . Garcia then lead Roma in their first Champions League appearance since 2010–11 to an impressive 5–1 victory against CSKA Moscow in their first match of Group E of the group stage . Roma finished third in the group and was hence transferred to the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League knockout phase . On 5 October 2014 , Garcia was sent off by the referee during a Serie A match against Juventus after protesting the referees decision to award Juve a penalty with a violin gesture . The controversial match ended with Juventus winning 3–2 . After the match , Garcia said , It a pity that here [ in Turin ] the penalty area is 17 metres . But Im happy with my team , who showed great personality . There were many incidents today but it was also a little bit of our fault that we lost . Roma ultimately finished the season in second place in the 2014–15 Serie A , 17 points behind Juventus , just like the previous season . Roma was on top of the Serie A table after matchdays 9 and 10 , in late October , of the 2015–16 season . The club had also qualified for the knockout phase of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League by finishing in second place in their group with a tally of just six points . On 13 January 2016 , Garcia and his coaching assistants , Frédéric Bompard and Claude Fichaux , were sacked by Roma after a poor run during which the club managed to win only one out of their last ten matches in all competitions , and only one out of their last seven Serie A matches . Roma had been eliminated on home ground on penalties from the 2015–16 Coppa Italia at the first hurdle on 16 December 2015 by Serie B side Spezia . News of the decision to sack Garcia came via Romas official website , with club president James Pallotta thanking him for his efforts : On behalf of myself and everyone at AS Roma , I would like to thank Rudi Garcia for all of his hard work since joining the club . We have all enjoyed some great moments during his time at Roma but we believe that this is the right time for a change . Marseille . On 20 October 2016 , on the same day that he was finally released from his Roma contract by mutual consent , Garcia was appointed manager of Marseille on a three-year deal . He succeeded the interim manager Franck Passi . Garcias appointment was made only three days after Frank McCourt completed the takeover of the club from Margarita Louis-Dreyfus by paying a reported €45 million . On 23 October , Marseille recorded a goalless draw away against Paris Saint-Germain in a Classique match in Ligue 1 , Garcias first competitive match as manager of the club . He left the club on 22 May 2019 . Lyon . On 14 October 2019 , Garcia moved to rivals Lyon to become their new manager , taking over after Sylvinho . During the 2019–2020 Champions League campaign , Garcia guided Lyon from the group stages , where they later beat Cristiano Ronaldos Juventus in the round of 16 . He led them to the semi-finals after they defeated Manchester City , but eventually lost to the eventual champions Bayern Munich . However , he left Lyon at the end of the 2020–21 season , after finishing fourth in the league table and missed out on the UEFA Champions League places . Media career . Garcia has worked for CanalSatellite , first as a reporter for post-match interviews , and then as a studio pundit . Personal life . After the Paris Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015 , Garcia gave out symbolic pencils to all journalists at his press conference , saying , What happened in Paris was an attack on freedom . But things mustnt change , this freedom should last forever . Honours . Manager . Lille - Ligue 1 : 2010–11 - Coupe de France : 2010–11 Marseille - UEFA Europa League runner-up : 2017–18 Individual - Ligue 1 Manager of the Year : 2010–11 - French Manager of the Year : 2011 , 2013 , 2014