Farid Benstiti (born 16 January 1967) is a French-Algerian football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He currently manages the Algeria women's national team. He has also managed clubs such as Olympique Lyonnais, Paris Saint-Germain, Dalian Quanjian and OL Reign.
Playing career
Benstiti started his playing career in 1984 for Olympique Lyonnais. In 1989, he moved to
Dijon FCO, and he subsequently played for AS Lyon-Duchère, FC Sète and Avenir Lembeek in the French and
Belgium third tiers, and Vaulx-en-Velin and
Gap FC in lower categories. He retired in 2000 at 33.
Managerial career
Benstiti is best known for his managerial career in women's football, which started in 2001 as he was appointed Olympique Lyonnais' manager. Under Benstiti Olympique won four championships in a row between 2007 and 2010 and reached the 2010 Champions League's final, lost to
Turbine Potsdam on penalties. However, he left the position after the 2010 season. In September 2011 he signed for the Russian national team and months later he also took charge of Russian champion
WFC Rossiyanka, replacing
Vera Pauw and
Tatiana Egorova respectively. In July 2012 he left both positions and returned to France for personal reasons.
[ Benstiti leaves Russia and Rossiyanka. UEFA, 04/07/12] He then signed for Paris Saint-Germain.
[ PSG women's summer refit. UEFA, 16/08/12]
On 22 December 2016, Chinese club Dalian Quanjian officially signed Benstiti as their new manager.
OL Reign
On 17 January 2020, Benstiti was appointed the head coach of
Reign FC.
He resigned on 2 July 2021;
Benstiti was later named in the
Yates Report for abusive behavior regarding weight-shaming players.
Algeria women's NT
On 2022, he signed as a manager with the Algerian women's national team.
