Marc Brys (born 10 May 1962) is a Belgian

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 and former player, who is the current coach of the Cameroon national team.

Career

His coaching career took off at Belgian club

Berchem Sport K. Berchem Sport is a Belgian association football club based in the district of Berchem in the municipality of Antwerp and currently playing in the Belgian Division 2. It has formerly played in the First Division. The club was founded in 1906 ...

, which he guided to the championship of the Belgian fourth and third divisions. After this success, Brys took over the first-division club

Germinal Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Antwerpen Club (), simply known as Beerschot AC, was a Belgian association football, football club based in southern Antwerp. Beerschot played in the Belgian Pro League from Belgian First Division 1999–2000, 1999–2000 ...

. In his first year, with the smallest competition budget, Germinal finished 7th, although 75% of Belgian coaches predicted that the club would be relegated. In May 2005, during his second year, Brys took Germinal to a 2–1 victory over

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

in the

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

, the first and only prize Germinal would win in its history. Germinal participated in the

2005–06 UEFA Cup The 2005–06 UEFA Cup, the 35th edition of the UEFA Cup, was won by Sevilla, beating Middlesbrough in the final. It was the first victory for Sevilla in a European competition, and the first appearance by Middlesbrough in a European final. The ...

but was eliminated by

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional Association football, football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top f ...

on penalty kicks. In 2006–07 Brys coached

Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

, where he was fired despite finishing in seventh place. He subsequently coached in Holland at

FC Eindhoven Football Club Eindhoven, commonly known as FC Eindhoven, is a professional association football, football club based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football ...

and

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

. In 2010 Brys signed for two years with

KV Mechelen Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen (), often called KV Mechelen (, KVM) or simply by their former French name Malinois /ˌmalɪˈnwɑː/, is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp (pr ...

. In his first year, the club attained the highest point total in itshistory. In 2012 Brys managed Saudi club Al-Faisaly FC (Harmah). He reached the semi-finals of the Crown Prince Cup and became group winner of the Gulf Cup. In his second season, however, he was fired and took over the Club Al-Raed for the last four games of the competition. He managed to keep them in the First League with two wins and two draws. Following a stint of over three seasons, Brys was finally sacked at

OH Leuven Oh, OH, or Oh! is an interjection, often proclaiming surprise (emotion), surprise. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * Oh! (Girls' Generation album), ''Oh!'' (Girls' Generation album), 2010 * Oh! (ScoLoHoFo album), ''Oh!'' (S ...

in October 2023 and retired, settling with his wife in his home in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. Six months later however, Brys signed for

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, following in the footsteps of fellow Belgian manager Hugo Broos who had already lead the team in 2016 & 2017. Brys also stated he had denied offers from other African nations such as

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Berchem Sport *

Belgian Third Division The Belgian Third Division (, ) was the third highest level in Football in Belgium, Belgian football. It had two leagues of 18 teams each (Belgian Third Division A, A and Belgian Third Division B, B) at the same level. This competition, originall ...

: 2001–02 Germinal Beerschot *

: 2004–05 Individual * Raymond Goethals Award: 2020

References

External links

* Living people 1962 births Belgian men's footballers Footballers from Antwerp Men's association football defenders K. Beerschot V.A.C. players Belgian football managers Saudi Pro League managers Beerschot A.C. managers K.V. Mechelen managers FC Eindhoven managers Al Faisaly FC managers Al Raed FC managers Najran SC managers Royal Excel Mouscron managers Sint-Truidense V.V. managers Oud-Heverlee Leuven managers K.M.S.K. Deinze managers Belgian expatriate football managers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Cameroon Expatriate football managers in Cameroon 20th-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-footy-defender-stub