Former Montpellier, Barcelona and World Cup winner Laurent Blanc will be the new manager of France after the World Cup finals and will replace Raymond Domenech. Blanc was part of the 1998 World Cup winning side, although missed the final through a controversial suspension. Blanc scored a vital golden goal winner against Paraguay and has since led Bordeaux to the French Championship in 2009. Blanc is replacing Raymond Domenech, who has been extremely unpopular with the Les Blues crowd, especially considering France scrapped through the playoff stage after a controversial handball from Thiery Henry.

Bordeaux released the following statement this evening: “Girondins Bordeaux have been informed by Laurent Blanc that he wanted to answer favourably to the French federation (FFF)’s solicitation to become the France coach. Girondins Bordeaux expect to hear from the FFF on the question of the compensation linked to the release of their coach.” Laurent Blanc has been linked as a possible successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United when the legendary Scottish manager decides to call it a day.

Blanc has played in five World Cup matches (all in 1998 as France failed to qualify for the 1990 and 1994 finals), winning four and drawing the other. As a manager, Blanc has an impressive 61% win ratio in 77 games. Not everyone is pleased to see Blanc as head coach with Raymond Domenech stating that it is a different ball game at national level – “I’m not the one who decides on this. Blanc proved he was able to be in charge at club level. But coaching a national team is a different job. He will have to be ready immediately because the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign starts in September.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Europe, Managers, South Africa 2010, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.