Lucien Favre

Lucien Favre

Favre with Mönchengladbach in 2011
Personal information
Date of birth	(1957-11-02) 2 November 1957 (age 59)
Place of birth	Saint-Barthélemy, Switzerland
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Nice (head coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1976–1979	Lausanne	30	(3)
1979–1981	Neuchâtel Xamax	51	(14)
1981–1983	Servette	59	(28)
1983–1984	Toulouse	35	(7)
1984–1991	Servette	134	(20)
Total		309	(72)
National team
1981–1989	Switzerland	24	(1)
Teams managed
1991–1995	Echallens
1997–2000	Yverdon Sport
2000–2002	Servette
2003–2007	Zürich
2007–2009	Hertha BSC
2011–2015	Borussia Mönchengladbach
2016–	Nice
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Lucien Favre (born 2 November 1957) is a Swiss football manager and former footballer. He currently manages for Ligue 1 side OGC Nice. Favre was a playmaker for various swiss and french clubs, the longest for Servette in Geneva, with who he also won the championship. As a manager he won the Swiss Cup and Swiss championship with Servette and FC Zürich. In Germany he revived Hertha in Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach. He is said to be a smart tactician and perfectionist.

During his playing career, Favre made a total of 24 appearances for Switzerland, scoring his one and only goal on his debut against the Netherlands. At club level, he played for Lausanne-Sports, Neuchâtel Xamax, Toulouse and Servette FC, earning a reputation as a skillful and intelligent play-maker. When Pierre-Albert Chapuisat destructed Favres knee in 1985 he could not play for 8 months. It is still considered one of the worst fouls in swiss footballing history. Favre announced his retirement in 1991.

Favre amassed 24 caps for the Swiss national team. Notably, he scored his first—and only—international goal on his debut, netting in Zürich against the Netherlands on 1 September 1981 in the same game in which both Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard also made their first appearance for their respective country. He earned his last cap for Switzerland against Portugal in a 3–1 away loss on 26 April 1989 played in Lisbon.

Favre's coaching career started in 1991 as the under-14 assistant manager with FC Echallens. The following year, he took over the unders-17s before being appointed manager of the first team in 1993. Under his leadership, his young squad surprisingly earned promotion to the Nationalliga B, the second tier of Swiss football (now called Challenge League). This promotion is still the outstanding achievement in the club's history.