Henri GUÉRIN

Henri Guérin was a defender, who had played for Rennes, as well as Stade Français and Aix-en-Provence. He began his managerial career in 1955, in the rather unusual rôle of player-manager. He was called in by his first club, Stade Rennais, who were in the middle of a crisis, to help them get back to the First Division. He would be able to do just that in his first season, by bringing solidity to his defence, and intelligent players into his gameplay. With Guérin in charge, Rennes would win the 1956 Second Division title, and he would stay on as manager for six seasons, but he would get less and less gametime ont he pitch as the years went by. At the end of the 1960/1961 season, he would leave Rennes to become the manager at AS Saint-Etienne in 1961, but - despite winning the French Cup with them in 1962, he was unable to prevent them from getting relegated to the Second Division. He would then be sacked; but managed to get a new challenge, being named the coach with the French national team before taking over as Head Coach. He would take part in the European Championships in 1964, where he guided his team to the Quarter-Finals, and also managed to get France to the World Cup Finals in 1966, albeit their campaign in England proved to be a failure. As a result of the side's disappointing showing, he became the target for a vindictive campaign against him in the press, and it ended with Guérin being relieved of his duties. In the 1980s, he became the National Technical Director, as well as Vice President of the Brittany Football League. He was honoured a few years after his death, as his name was given to Rennes' training ground at La Piverdière.