Frédéric Antonetti (born 19 August 1961) is a French professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of French club

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

. He previously managed

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest population of any commune on the is ...

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Gamba'' comes from the Japanese , meaning "to do your best" or "to s ...

, Saint-Étienne,

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, Rennes and

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

Early life

Antonetti was born in Venzolasca, Haute-Corse.

Managerial career

Bastia

Following the end of his career in 1990, Antonetti later began managing his former club, Corsican Division 1 side

on youth level before taking charge of the senior team in 1994. In his four years at the club, he guided them to the Coupe de la Ligue final in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, losing 2–0 against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Gamba Osaka

In May 1998, Antonetti moved abroad to Japan to become the new manager of J.League side

. However, due to poor results, he was sacked in June 1999.

Return to Bastia

Antonetti took charge of Bastia as manager for the second time in June 1999, succeeding José Pasqualetti.

Saint-Étienne

On 7 October 2001, Antonetti was revealed as the new manager of Saint-Étienne, penning a three-year deal. When he took over the reins of ''Les Verts'', the club was in Ligue 2. Antonetti led Saint-Étienne to promotion to Ligue 1 in 2004 and helped them reach the semi-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue, where they were knocked out by eventual winners

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy S ...

with 2–3. He left the club in June 2004, having been in charge for three seasons.

Nice

In May 2005, Antonetti became the manager of Ligue 1 side

. In 2006, he managed Nice to the Coupe de la Ligue final against Nancy, but were defeated 2–1. He left the club at the end of the season in 2009 after four years in charge.

Rennes

On 2 June 2009, Antonetti joined Ligue 1 club Rennes. After four years in charge of the club, he left by mutual consent. Antonetti later said of the club in 2017: “Rennes is like

Canada Dry Canada Dry is a brand of soft drinks founded in 1904 and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple (now Keurig Dr Pepper). For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though the company also manufa ...

, it has the colour of a large club, but it’s not". He also spoke of his relationship with the club's president saying “With

François Pinault François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis. Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. Taken public in ...

, physically, we saw each other twice a year, once at the beginning of the season, another time in the middle, and then he came to the stadium with one or two matches".

Lille

On 22 November 2015, Antonetti was appointed as the manager of

in place of Hervé Renard, signing a three-year contract. When he took over, Lille was in 17th place in the Ligue 1 table. His first competitive match was a Ligue 1 away match against

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

on 28 November, which ended in a 2–0 defeat. After struggling during the first three months, Lille finished the season superbly, finishing fifth in Ligue 1 and runners-up in the Coupe de la Ligue final to Paris Saint-Germain after being beaten 2–1 in the 2015–16 season. In August 2016, Antonetti signed an extension to his contract that would tie him to the club until 30 June 2020. On 22 November 2016, the club announced that they had parted company with Antonetti and that he had agreed to leave "in a friendly manner". Antonetti received a severance payout of approximately €840,000, which was equivalent to seven months of his gross monthly wages of €120,000. At the time of his departure, Lille was languishing in 19th place in the league, second from bottom in the 2016–17 season. They were also eliminated at the first hurdle of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

against Gabala, where they were eliminated 2–1 on aggregate.

Metz

On 24 May 2018, Antonetti was revealed as the new manager of Ligue 2 side

, who had just been relegated from Ligue 1. In his first season, he secured promotion back to Ligue 1 following a 2–1 victory over Red Star. On 18 May 2019, club president Bernard Serin announced that Antonetti would not continue as manager for the 2019–20 season because of personal reasons and was instead handed a role as general manager, with his assistant Vincent Hognon taking over the managerial post. Antonetti later returned to Metz for the 2020-21 season which saw the club finish 10th. On 22 February 2022, Antonetti was involved in a fight following the full-time whistle with Lille's sporting director Sylvain Armand. Antonetti was later given a ten-match touchline ban over the incident. On 7 June 2022, Antonetti agreed to step down as Metz manager by mutual consent.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Bastia * Coupe de la Ligue runner-up: 1994–95 * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Saint-Étienne * Ligue 2: 2003–04 Nice *Coupe de la Ligue runner-up: 2005–06 Rennes *Coupe de la Ligue runner-up:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Lille *Coupe de la Ligue runner-up: 2015–16 Metz *Ligue 2: 2018–19

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antonetti, Frederic 1961 births Living people Sportspeople from Haute-Corse Footballers from Corsica French footballers Association football midfielders INF Vichy players SC Bastia players AS Béziers Hérault (football) players Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne players Ligue 1 players French football managers SC Bastia managers J1 League managers Gamba Osaka managers AS Saint-Étienne managers OGC Nice managers Stade Rennais F.C. managers Lille OSC managers FC Metz managers Ligue 1 managers Ligue 2 managers French expatriate footballers Expatriate football managers in Japan French expatriate sportspeople in Japan