2023-10-12 19:41:00
Less than three months after his forced departure from Paris SG, Christophe Galtier found a bench in Qatar, at Al-Duhail. The 57-year-old technician took charge of the Qatar champion last season, after a year in Paris marked by a mixed sporting record and a very turbulent end. Successive disappointments, symbolized by early eliminations in the round of 16 of the Champions League against Bayern and the Coupe de France against OM, cost him his place, one year from the end of his contract.
The Parisian adventure ended on July 5 for the Marseillais, who passed through Saint-Étienne, Lille and Nice as head coach, who will therefore succeed former Argentinian international Hernan Crespo at Al-Duhail.
Accusations of racism, relating to his time at OGC Nice during the 2021-2022 season, were added to disappointing sporting results and sealed his fate in the eyes of the leaders of the capital club.
Trial in December
The affair broke out after the revelation by independent journalist Romain Molina and then RMC radio of an email, which Agence France-Presse was unable to authenticate, addressed to the management of the Nice club by the former sports director Julien Fournier, with whom Galtier had execrable relations.
Fournier reported these comments attributed to the coach: “He then replied to me that I had to take into account the reality of the city and that in fact, we could not have so many blacks and Muslims in the team » ; “He told me of his desire to fundamentally change the team, also specifying that he wanted to limit the number of Muslim players as much as possible. » Galtier has always denied these comments, affirming on Canal+ in September: “I do not accept that we can say that Christophe Galtier is a racist. »
He will be tried on December 15 before the Nice criminal court for offenses punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. He will then have been installed for two months on the bench of Al-Duhail, eight times Qatar champion in its history, including the last time last May.
“Galtier embodies an influential figure in French football, having written his name in history with triumphs such as the Coupe de la Ligue with AS Saint-Étienne, the Ligue 1 championship with Losc”, and a new title champion of France at the helm of Paris SG, Al-Duhail said in a press release on Thursday, without specifying the duration of the contract.
With Coutinho
The former defender returns to service on the bench of a team currently fourth in the Qatari championship after five days and in difficulty in the Asian Champions League after two first matches without a victory.
Galtier will quickly get to the heart of the matter, with a big poster on the program less than two weeks after taking office, from October 24. His team will challenge one of the new juggernauts of Saudi football, Al-Nassr, led by five-time Golden Ball winner Cristiano Ronaldo, joined this summer by several stars of European football such as Sadio Mané, Aymeric Laporte, Marcelo Brozovic and Seko Fofana. To face them, he will have under his command Philippe Coutinho, the Brazilian who played for Barcelona and Liverpool and even Bayern, the main star of the squad.
Christophe Galtier had a promising start in Paris where he was to embody a renewal, but the dynamic initiated disintegrated after the 2022 World Cup. His years in Lille (2017-2021) were the most successful, materialized during the last season by a title of champion of France.
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