Paul Le Guen

Paul Le Guen (born March 1, 1964 in Pencran, Brittany) is a French football manager and is currently the manager of Scottish team Rangers. Le Guen is a highly respected manager in France, leading Lyon to three consecutive league titles. Previously, he was a player, who enjoyed successful stays at FC Nantes and Paris St. Germain. He is 1.86 m (6'1") tall and 79 kg (174 lbs).

Playing career

Club Level

During his playing career, Paul played at AS Brest for six years, Stade Brestois, FC Nantes for two years, before leaving Brittany for Paris St. Germain where he played for seven years (and became one of the clubs legends with 478 appearances and a Cup Winners Cup medal in 1996).

International Level

At international level he played just 17 times for France, due to injuries and he was part of the team which lost out on a trip to the World Cup in 1994, along with Eric Cantona and David Ginola. He ended his playing career by taking part in a friendly where his home region of Brittany faced Cameroon on 21 May 1998 (1-1 draw).

Management Career

Rennes

His time at Rennes between 1998 and 2001 is perhaps most memorable for his unearthing of football stars. He signed then unknown players, such as Shabani Nonda and El Hadji Diouf, who under his guidance, became stars. He was sacked by Rennes in 2001 after a fall-out with the club's board. This led to him taking a year off from football.

Lyon

Le Guen replaced Jacques Santini as manager of Olympique Lyon in 2002 after they captured their first league title. Le Guen unexpectedly took Lyon to a further three consecutive championships and made the team a force in the Champions league. He resigned from his position at Lyon on May 9th, 2005, the day after the club won their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 championship. He was replaced by Gerard Houllier.

After Lyon

After leaving the club, Le Guen embarked upon another year away from football management. During this time he turned down management positions at Olympiacos, Benfica, Fenerbahçe, Auxerre, Monaco and Lazio and also stated that he would not return to manage his former club PSG.

Rangers

On March 11 2006, it was confirmed that Paul Le Guen had agreed to replace Alex McLeish as manager of Rangers in a three year contract starting in season 2006/2007. Le Guen signed a lucrative 3 year contract with Rangers, with the option to extend his stay at Ibrox Stadium. He quickly made signings on many young players to try and strengthen the squad. The signings he has made already are Dean Furman who he signed from English Champions Chelsea also Libor Sionko, William Stanger and Antoine Ponroy from Rennes and Karl Svensson from IFK Göteborg.

Le Guen also enlisted the services of French goalkeeper Lionel Letizi from his old club Paris Saint Germain (PSG). Letizi replaces Ronald Waterreus and has signed a 2 year deal with Rangers.

Trivia

Paul is the first Roman Catholic to manage Rangers F.C..

Paul Le Guen has got a Master of Science degree in Economics, the which he completed at the University of Nantes.

He is nicknamed La patate de Pencran (The Pencran Potato) having been born in Pencran, a northern town of Brittany near Brest, famous for its top-quality potatoes.

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