Jocelyn Merlen (born 24 November 1972) is a French former

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 ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Playing career

Merlen never played in a professional division during his career, but participated in the 2000 Coupe de France final with

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

. The final score eventually turned out to be a 2–1 victory in the favor of

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

. Earlier in the tournament, he scored the game-winning goal off a free-kick in their 2–1 win over top-flight

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

in the quarter-finals. Merlen participated in a commemorative rematch against Nantes 20 years later at the

Stade de l'Épopée The Stade de l'Épopée () is a stadium in Calais, France. It is currently used for football matches, and is the home stadium of Championnat National 3 club RC Calais. The stadium holds about 12,000 spectators. The first game played at the sta ...

in Calais.

Managerial career

In April 2023, Merlen was sacked as the manager of

Régional 1 The Régional 1, formerly Division d'Honneur or Honneur Ligue is the common generic name for the highest level football league competitions run by each of the 13 Regional Leagues in France. Together, these league competitions serve as the six ...

club Grand Calais Pascal FC.

Honours

Calais *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

runner-up: 1999–2000

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merlen, Jocelyn 1972 births Living people French men's footballers Men's association football defenders Calais RUFC players USL Dunkerque players Union Sportive Gravelines Football players Championnat National players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players French football managers Sportspeople from Calais Footballers from Pas-de-Calais