Jeff Saibene (born 13 September 1968) is a Luxembourgish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and manager who most recently managed

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

club Neuchâtel Xamax.

Personal life

Saibene is a citizen of both Luxembourg and Switzerland and married with a Swiss wife. He is a fan of

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

Club career

He played most of his club football abroad, predominantly in Switzerland, but also in Belgium for

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

. He began and ended his playing career in his native Luxembourg.

International career

As a defensive midfielder or defender, Saibene played for Luxembourg's national team 63 times between 1986 and 2001. He played in 27

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

matches. He played his final international game in October 2001, a World Cup qualification loss at

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

Coaching career

Saibene was the manager of

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

, in Switzerland and assistant to Allan Simonsen at the national team. He was formerly the assistant manager to Ryszard Komornicki at Aarau but was promoted in June 2009 when Komornicki left the club. He then managed Luxembourg U-21. He left his position in March 2011 to coach FC St. Gallen. On 19 March 2017, he was appointed as the new head coach of

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

. He was sacked on 10 December 2018. He was appointed as the new head coach of FC Ingolstadt for the 2019–20 season. He was sacked on 9 March 2020. On 2 October 2020, he was named head coach of

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

. He was sacked on 30 January 2021. In June 2021, he was named new head coach of Racing FC Union Luxembourg. On 29 August 2022, he returned to Switzerland to take over coaching duties of struggling

side Neuchâtel Xamax. He was unable to turn around Xamax's fortune, managing only three wins in 25 games he managed. Following a 2–5 defeat to

on 23 April 2023, he handed in his resignation.

Managerial

Honours

As player

Union Luxembourg *

Luxembourg Cup The Luxembourg Cup () is the national Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Luxembourgian Association football, football. It was first held in 1922, and has been held annually since, with the exception of the four seasons du ...

: 1985–86 FC Aarau * Swiss National League A: 1992–93

As manager

St. Gallen *

: 2011–12 Racing Union *

: 2021–22

References

External links

*
Player profile
– Standard Liège {{DEFAULTSORT:Saibene, Jeff 1968 births Living people Luxembourgian men's footballers Luxembourg men's international footballers Luxembourgian expatriate men's footballers Racing FC Union Luxembourg players Standard Liège players FC Aarau players FC Locarno players FC Swift Hesperange players Belgian Pro League players Swiss Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Luxembourgian football managers FC Aarau managers BSC Old Boys players FC St. Gallen managers FC Thun managers Arminia Bielefeld managers FC Ingolstadt 04 managers 1. FC Kaiserslautern managers Neuchâtel Xamax FCS managers 2. Bundesliga managers 3. Liga managers Luxembourgian expatriate football managers Men's association football midfielders Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium FC Monthey players Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Germany