Bruno "Pep" Génésio (born 1 September 1966) is a French
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
and former player who played as a
midfielder
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
. He is the head coach of
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...
club
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
.
Early life
Génésio was born on 1 September 1966 in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
.
Playing career
Génésio is a youth exponent from
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
. He played 171 league games in the first team between 1985 and 1995, also representing
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million1993–94 season.
In 1995, Génésio joined
Martigues
Martigues ( in classical norm, ''Lou Martegue'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte.
A ...
in the
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...
. He played 27 league matches for the club during the campaign, scoring once in a 2–1 home win against
Guingamp
Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 7,115 as of 2020, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Guin ...
on 18 May 1996; the match was also the last professional one of his career.
Managerial career
In 1997, one year after retiring, Génésio started working as a coach for the youth categories of FC du Pays de L'Arbresle. In 1999, he was appointed manager of Villefranche in the CFA.
Génésio was sacked in 2001, with the club suffering relegation from
CFA 2
The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a Association football, football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football ...
. He subsequently joined Racing Besançon as an assistant manager, being named at the helm of the first team for the 2005–06 season; he was relieved from his duties in March 2006.
In 2006, Génésio started to work as a scout at the first club of his senior playing career,
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
. He also worked as an assistant manager of their
reserve team
In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...
before being named Rémi Garde's assistant in the first team in 2011. He kept the position under Garde's successor Hubert Fournier who joined the club in May 2014.
On 24 December 2015, Génésio was appointed as Lyon's head coach after the sacking of Fournier. He led the club to second position at the end of the 2015–16 Ligue 1 season. The club finished in fourth or third position in the next three Ligue 1 campaigns, with Lyon reaching the semifinals of the
2016–17 UEFA Europa League
The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League was the 46th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the eighth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played between Ajax and ...
. On 14 April 2019, Génésio confirmed his departure from Lyon in the coming summer.
On 31 July 2019, Génésio joined
Beijing Guoan
Beijing Guoan Football Club (), known in AFC competitions as Beijing FC, is a Chinese professional football club based in Beijing, that competes in . Beijing Guoan plays its home matches at the Workers' Stadium, located within Chaoyang Distr ...
as their head coach. On 4 March 2021, he became the head coach of
Rennes
Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
. In his first two seasons at the club, Rennes finished fourth twice and reached the knockout stages of European competitions. On 19 November 2023, he departed the club by mutual consent. On 5 June 2024, he signed a two-year contract with
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...