Reynald Michel Sebastian Pedros (born 10 October 1971) is a French professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

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 recently managed the Morocco women's national team.

Early life and club career

Reynald Michel Sebastian Pedros was born on 10 October 1971 in

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, formed in Nantes. He was part of the magic trio of

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes, commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Naunnt''), is a French professional association football, football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 Ap ...

with Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouédec. He won the Division 1 title with Nantes in 1995. The following year he reached the semi-finals of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

International career

Pedros played for the France national team. His career bears some similarity to David Ginola's – a mistake in the last

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

qualifying match leading to French elimination, and subsequently being dropped from the national team. Before

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

, he was considered one of the best French midfielders, on par with

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

, and was selected for the tournament. France reached the semi-final to face the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, and the two teams could not be separated over ninety minutes. The match thus went into

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and subsequently a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. After five successful penalties for each team, Pedros was to take the first of the penalties in sudden death. His shot was weak and slow, and was easily saved by the Czech goalkeeper, Petr Kouba. Miroslav Kadlec came to take the next penalty, scored it, and knocked France out of the tournament. Following this elimination, Pedros was made a pariah by the media and was greatly disliked by French fans. He attempted to make a comeback, in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

, but he was never able to come back to the top of his game.

Managerial career

Pedros worked as president adviser at

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Olympique Lyonnais Féminin OL Lyonnes, formerly known as (; then commonly referred to as Olympique Lyon) and still commonly known as Lyon or simply OL, is a French women's professional Women's association football, football club based in Lyon. The club has been the fem ...

. He led them to retain the

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

championship for the 12th and 13th time. He also succeeded in guiding the team to retaining the UEFA Women's Champions League for the 3rd and 4th time. In November 2020, Pedros became the coach of the Moroccan women's national team. This recruitment took place in the context of the effort made by the FRMF and its President Fouzi Lekjaa to develop women's football in Morocco, particularly mass football, with the aim of becoming a stronghold of women's football at continental and world level. His first tournament was the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, at which he guided Morocco to reach the final of the WAFCON for the first time in its only third appearance. This included a win on penalties win over African powerhouse

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

in the semi-finals, which was seen as a redemption for his penalty defeat in Euro 1996. In August 2023, he took Morocco women's team to the knockout stages of the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

on their debut appearance at the tournament.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pedros goal.''

Honours

Manager

Lyon *

: 2017–18, 2018–19 * Coupe de France Féminine: 2018–19 * UEFA Women's Champions League: 2018–19, 2019–20 Morocco * Women's Africa Cup of Nations runner-up:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedros, Reynald 1971 births Living people Footballers from Orléans French men's footballers Men's association football midfielders FC Nantes players Olympique de Marseille players Parma Calcio 1913 players SSC Napoli players Olympique Lyonnais players Montpellier HSC players Toulouse FC players SC Bastia players Al-Khor SC players Ligue 1 players Serie A players Qatar Stars League players Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in football Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for France France men's under-21 international footballers France men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players French football managers Olympique Lyonnais Féminin managers French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland French expatriate sportspeople in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Qatar French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French sportspeople of Portuguese descent French people of Spanish descent Morocco women's national football team managers 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup managers 20th-century French sportsmen