Jorge Sampaoli rests his suitcases in Ligue 1. And it’s in Brittany, at the home of the current 13th-placed team in the French soccer championship. Visit Stade Rennais announced on Monday evening that the Argentinian had signed on as the club’s coach until 2026.
Former coach ofOlympique de MarseilleThe 64-year-old replaces Julien Stéphan, who was sacked last Thursday after a series of poor results.
Spectator of the wreckage against Toulouse
Chosen at the end of a process in which half a dozen names were more or less seriously considered, Sampaoli was already in the stands at Roazhon Park on Sunday. There, he witnessed his future team’s latest wreck against Toulouse (0-2) on Matchday 11 of Ligue 1, and was able to gauge the task ahead of him. Sampaoli, a man with a strong hand and a penchant for spectacular but physically demanding football, will have to get a team back on track after missing out on European qualification for the first time in seven seasons last year.
He is best known in France for having coached Marseille for a season and a half, from February 2021 to the summer of 2022. He turned OM into the runner-up of the Paris Saint-Germain in the 2021-22 financial year, but left the club when he realized that the club’s management could not offer him the means to really challenge PSG for the league title.
A “loyal and committed man
“We are all very happy that Jorge is joining us, as he is a coach recognized on the international scene for his professionalism and humanism,” stressed the club’s executive chairman Arnaud Pouille in the statement making his arrival official. “He has a strong attachment to his players and colleagues, and is a loyal and committed man. We need his mobilizing energy to get the club moving again, and to face the competition with determination”, added the executive.
Sampaoli, who does not speak French but understands it fairly well, will be presented to the press at 1pm on Tuesday.