When Willy Sagnol had to replace Carlo Ancelotti as coach of Bayern Munich, he did not imagine that it would be the Georgian bench that would give him importance in European football. The dismissal of the current Real Madrid coach gave him the opportunity to get closer to the elite in which he already lived as a footballer. In Germany he lived the best years of his career, as a right back for Bayern, with whom he won the Champions League in 2001 against Valencia.
Before joining Bayern, he had already been sporting director of the French national team and coach of the under-21s, but nowhere did he receive the recognition he is receiving as coach of Georgia, which he has qualified for the final phase of a major competition for the first time.
When he played he was a right back, but he grew up admiring a forward, like almost all children. «My idol was Roger Milla. I still have the image of him dancing after his goal with Cameroon, at more than 40 years old. For me, it is one of the great moments in the history of the World Cups », he says. Although for him, the best of all time was Pelé.
Sagnol was a latecomer to the French national team’s successes in the final years of the 20th century. He made his debut in November 2000, when France had already won the World Cup and the European Championships under Zidane. His history with the French national team is one of failure. He was called up for the 2002 World Cup, but did not play and France did not make it past the first round. He did make it to the Euro 2004 in Portugal, but the French were again eliminated early, having been sent off in the quarter-finals by a header from the Greek Charisteas. And in 2008 they also failed to make it past the first round. Only in 2006 did he come close to winning the World Cup in Germany. Sagnol watched from the pitch as Zidane headed the ball past Materazzi, which ended the French star’s career.
And it is in Germany, too, that he has made peace with the Euros. Georgia finished fourth in Spain’s group, behind Norway, but its good performance in the Nations League allowed it to play in the play-offs and qualified after beating Greece on penalties. This is how Sagnol took revenge for that header from Charisteas.
Sagnol has managed to reach the hearts of his footballers with messages like the one he gave them before playing against Portugal. “Something like ‘play your football and be disciplined’.” I told others to remember when they were 16 years old so they could play like that,” he said in the press conference after the victory against Portugal.
Sagnol has chosen to integrate into Georgian society to do his job. Instead of coaching from a distance, as happens with other coaches who manage modest teams that are not their country’s, he has settled in Tbilisi, where he spends more than half the year. And the country’s government has rewarded him with citizenship.
Although not everything is easy for him. Despite having taken Georgia where he had never gone before, he has not escaped criticism. «Every day some idiots insult me. “I’m fed up,” he said in the press conference prior to the match against Portugal. Complaints came months ago about Mikoutadze’s replacement. «They went so far as to say that this has become too political. “I am quite far from politics because I want to make sensible decisions based only on football data,” he defends himself.
2024-06-28 04:21:47
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