Rémi Garde (, born 3 April 1966) is a French 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 ...

. He was most recently the head coach of Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer. He played as a defender and

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, spending most of his career with his first club

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, with whom he won the 1988–89 French Division 2. In 1993, he moved to Strasbourg, reaching the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

final and winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup in his second season. He joined Arsenal in 1996, where he won the 1997–98 FA Premier League before retiring through injury a year later. Garde was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

by the France national team, featuring in their squad at

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...

. Upon retirement as a player, he worked as a coach and assistant manager at Lyon, before taking the managerial position there in 2011. He won the Coupe de France and

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

the following year, and left in 2014 for personal reasons. He was hired by Aston Villa in November 2015, and left five months later. He was hired by Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer in November 2017, and was sacked in August 2019.

Club career

Born in L'Arbresle,

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

, Garde started his playing career at nearby

in 1982, helping the club achieve promotion to Ligue 1 in 1989. Playing as a

or sweeper, he became club captain. Garde left Lyon in 1993 to join Strasbourg, where he spent three seasons and reached a

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

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 ...

. In the summer, the team won the

1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the first edition of the tournament administered by the UEFA. It saw Strasbourg and Bordeaux win their semi-finals to advance to the UEFA Cup, the latter eventually finishing runners-up. It also saw English repres ...

, defeating Austria's Admira Wacker in the final. He moved to England in August 1996, joining Arsenal after compatriot Arsène Wenger recommended him to the club; Wenger was not Arsenal's manager at this stage, as he was seeing out his contract at

Nagoya Grampus (formerly known as ) is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and founded as the company team of the Toyota, Toyota Motor Corp. in 1939 ...

. Garde joined on the same day as

Patrick Vieira Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Vieira began his career at ...

, though unlike Vieira, the 30-year-old Garde was intended to be more of an experienced cover player rather than a future first-team regular. Garde became known for his tidy and reliable performances as backup for Vieira or

Emmanuel Petit Emmanuel Laurent Petit (born 22 September 1970) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder at club level for Arsenal, Barcelona, Monaco, and Chelsea. He represented France at international level in two FIFA ...

; he played a total of 45 matches over three seasons for Arsenal, and was a member of the Double-winning side of 1997–98, making ten league appearances that season meaning he only narrowly qualified for a

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

winners' medal. He also made one appearance during Arsenal's

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

run, which came in the quarter-final replay at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. The game went to a penalty shootout and despite Garde missing his kick, Arsenal prevailed. He was however not part of the squad as they won the

1998 FA Cup Final The 1998 FA Cup Final was a football match between Arsenal and Newcastle United on 16 May 1998 at the old Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1997–98 FA Cup, the 117th season of the world's oldest football knockout competi ...

against Newcastle United at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

. With age and a persistent knee injury limiting his appearances, Garde retired from professional football in June 1999, just after he had narrowly missed out on a second successive double with the club, who had finished second in the league and lost the

semi-final to Manchester United.

International career

Garde made his debut for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

at the 1990 Kuwait Tournament at the Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium in Kuwait City. His first appearance came against the hosts in a 1–0 win on 21 January. He won six caps for his country, and was a member of the French squad at

Euro 92 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark national football team, Denmark won the 19 ...

but did not play at all in the competition, in which the French were eliminated at the group stage in Sweden.

Coaching career

Lyon

After a period working as a pundit on

French television Television in France was introduced in 1931, when the first experimental broadcasts began. Colour television was introduced in October 1967 on La Deuxième Chaîne. Digital terrestrial television The digital terrestrial television platform w ...

, he rejoined his old club Lyon as a coach in 2003, and helped the club to win Ligue 1 titles in 2003–04 and 2004–05. After the departure of Paul Le Guen as manager in the summer of 2005, Garde became assistant to his replacement

Gérard Houllier Gérard Paul Francis Houllier (; 3 September 194714 December 2020) was a French professional football manager and player. Clubs he managed include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, U ...

. In May 2007, with his contract due to expire, Garde was linked to a return to Arsenal as

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

, a new role created to replace that of the recently departed

vice-chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

David Dein David Barry Dein (b. 7 September 1943) is a British businessman, known for being a former co-owner and vice-chairman of Arsenal Football Club, and former vice-chairman of the Football Association. Dein was vice-chairman of Arsenal between 198 ...

. In 2010, he worked as the director of the Centre Tola Vologe, Lyon's training complex. On 22 June 2011, he was appointed as Lyon's new manager to replace

Claude Puel Claude Jacques Puel (; born 2 September 1961) is a French football manager and former player. He spent his entire playing career with Monaco, before becoming manager of the club, leading them to the league title in his first full season in char ...

. While at the helm of ''Les Gones'', Garde won the

title of 2011–12 as well as the Trophee des Champions of the same year. He left at the end of the 2013–14 season for personal and family reasons.

Aston Villa

On 2 November 2015, Garde agreed a three-and-a-half year deal to become the manager of

side Aston Villa who were bottom of the table. Six days later, in Garde's first match in charge, his new team drew 0–0 with league leaders Manchester City. Garde put a strong emphasis on discipline at Villa. He dropped midfielder

Jack Grealish Jack Peter Grealish (born 10 September 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for club Manchester City and the England national team. Grealish joined Aston Villa at the age of six, and ...

from the first team after he went partying following a 4–0 loss at Everton and warned the team not to party excessively over the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

period. On 29 March 2016, with Villa still bottom of the league, Garde left the club by mutual consent.

Montreal Impact

After more than 18 months out of work, Garde was named coach of Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer on 8 November 2017. In his first competitive fixture, away to fellow Canadians

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

, the Impact lost 2–1. Montreal competed for a playoff position for much of Garde's first season. After a 1–0 loss to the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compe ...

on the final day of the regular season, the Impact failed to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs. Garde was sacked by Montreal on 21 August 2019, and replaced by former Houston Dynamo head coach Wílmer Cabrera.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Lyon * Ligue 2: 1988–89 Strasbourg * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

runner-up: 1994–95 Arsenal *

: 1997–98

Manager

Lyon *Coupe de France: 2011–12 *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garde, Remi 1966 births Living people People from L'Arbresle French footballers France international footballers Association football midfielders Olympique Lyonnais players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Arsenal F.C. players UEFA Euro 1992 players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Premier League players Expatriate footballers in England Olympique Lyonnais managers Aston Villa F.C. managers CF Montréal coaches Ligue 1 managers Premier League managers Major League Soccer coaches French expatriate footballers Expatriate football managers in England Expatriate soccer managers in Canada French football managers French expatriate football managers French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Canada Sportspeople from Rhône (department) Footballers from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes