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Laurent Robert Blanc (; born 19 November 1965) is a French professional football manager and former Football player who played as a centre-back and is the manager of Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad. He has the nickname Le Président, which was given to him following his stint at Marseille in tribute to his leadership skills. He is regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time.
Blanc played professional football for numerous clubs, including Montpellier HSC, Napoli, FC Barcelona, Marseille, Inter Milan and Manchester United, often operating in the sweeper position. He is also a former French international, earning 97 caps and scoring 16 international goals. He represented the country in several international tournaments, including the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000, both of which France won. On 28 June 1998, Blanc scored the first golden goal in World Cup history against Paraguay.
He began his managerial career at Bordeaux in 2007, winning domestic honours including the 2008–09 Ligue 1 title. After leaving Bordeaux in 2010 he became the manager of the France national team until 2012, replacing Raymond Domenech in the wake of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and leading the country to the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 2012. In 2013, he was hired by Paris Saint-Germain, winning further honours. After three successful years with Paris Saint-Germain he left the club in June 2016. Following more than six years without coaching in Europe, he was appointed manager by Olympique Lyon in October 2022.
In 1991, Blanc tried his luck abroad when he left Montpellier for Napoli in the Italian Serie A. Despite a decent season, during which he managed to score six goals, he felt like he could not fully express his potential and returned to France after just one year, to Nîmes and then Saint Étienne, where again he imposed himself as one of the best defenders in the league. Although Blanc scored 13 goals in his last season at Saint-Étienne, les Verts were almost relegated, only staying up because Marseille were not allowed to return to the first division because of the club's financial difficulties. Guy Roux, impressed by Blanc and looking for a replacement for Dutch international Frank Verlaat, convinced him to join AJ Auxerre in 1995. Despite injuring himself early in the season, Blanc came back strongly and played a great part in the team's double that year.
He scored four goals during his time at Manchester United. One of these came in the league against Tottenham Hotspur, and the other three all came in the Champions League in games against Olympiacos and Boavista (both home and away). Blanc retired from football after helping United win the 2002–03 FA Premier League title.
On 7 February 1989, Blanc made his debut for the senior national team against the Republic of Ireland. France, then in reconstruction after the retirement of numerous key players, did not manage to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Shortly after that, they started an impressive 19-game unbeaten streak, including eight wins out of eight in Euro 1992 qualifying, making them one of the favorites to win the competition. They would, however, get knocked out in the group stage by eventual winners Denmark.
After France failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Blanc was heavily criticised, as well the rest of the team, and he subsequently decided to retire from international football. Aimé Jacquet, after taking over the managerial position of the national team, made it one of his priorities to convince Blanc to change his mind. Blanc returned to the team for the Euro 1996 qualification campaign and scored in a 4–0 win over Slovakia. At the tournament finals, he formed a central defensive partnership with Marcel Desailly. Blanc scored France's opening goal in the final group match against Bulgaria in a 3–1 win to put the team into the quarter-finals, where they faced the Netherlands at Anfield. Blanc scored France's winning penalty kick in the Penalty shootout after the match had ended 0–0. France then lost on penalty kicks at the semi-final stage after drawing 0–0 with the Czech Republic. However, Blanc again successfully converted his kick.
France then entered the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which was held on home soil. Blanc was exemplary during the competition and, on 28 June 1998, scored the first-ever golden goal in World Cup history against Paraguay in the round of 16. In the quarter-final, Blanc helped France to a clean sheet over Italy and scored the winning penalty as Les Bleus prevailed in the shootout. He missed the final after being sent off in the semi-final against Croatia for slapping Slaven Bilić. The sending off was the first (and only) Penalty card of Blanc's international professional career. Despite Blanc's absence, France lifted the World Cup for the first time after defeating Brazil 3–0 at the Stade de France.
Blanc was also part of the team that won UEFA Euro 2000 during which, despite having been criticised for his age and lack of speed during the qualifications, he proved reliable in defence and even scored France's first goal of the tournament against Denmark in the group stage. He announced his retirement from international football after the competition, following the example of his captain Didier Deschamps. On 2 September 2000, Blanc, along with Deschamps and Bernard Lama, played his final match for Les Bleus in a friendly against England at the Stade de France.
Blanc was well known for kissing good friend and goalkeeper Fabien Barthez's head before the start of every match, supposedly for good luck (the two did repeat this ritual when they played together for Manchester United, but only for Champions League matches). The France national team was unbeaten in all matches when it fielded the World Cup and European Championship winning defence of Blanc, Desailly, Lilian Thuram and Bixente Lizarazu. Overall, Blanc recorded 97 caps and scored 16 goals. In 1999, the readers of France Football magazine voted him the fourth-best French player of all time, behind Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane and Raymond Kopa.
In the 2009–10 Champions League campaign, Blanc's Bordeaux topped a group featuring Juventus FC and Bayern Munich without losing a match. After defeating Olympiacos in the Round of 16, they were eliminated by fellow French side Lyon in the quarter-finals.
As he took charge of France, the Federation had decided to suspend all 23 players who took part in the South African World Cup, much to Blanc's regret. On 11 August, in his first game as manager, France lost 2–1 to Norway at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo. However, Blanc's team soon managed to top their Euro 2012 qualifying group while also achieving friendly wins over England, Brazil and Germany. France's first match in Group D of Euro 2012 was against England and ended in a 1–1 draw, after Samir Nasri scored to cancel out a goal scored by Joleon Lescott. France then went on to win their second match 2–0 against Ukraine. They advanced to the quarter-finals by finishing in second position in Group D, despite losing to Sweden 2–0 in their final group match. France were defeated 2–0 by the defending champions Spain in the quarter-final match. Blanc stepped down as manager of the national team on 30 June 2012 and was replaced by former France captain and teammate Didier Deschamps.
Blanc's second season in charge began with victory in the 2014 Trophée des Champions against Guingamp at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing. On 11 April 2015, PSG retained the Coupe de la Ligue with a victory over SC Bastia in the final, with Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimović scoring two goals each in a 4–0 victory. PSG won the Ligue 1 title for the third consecutive year on 16 May 2015 with a 2–1 victory at Montpellier HSC. On 11 February 2016, Blanc signed a two-year contract extension. PSG reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the fourth consecutive year after dispatching Chelsea in the round of 16, but lost to Manchester City in the quarter-finals. Blanc was criticised by the French media after the Champions League quarterfinal second-leg match against Manchester City, where he had surprised many by having his team play in an untried 5–3–2 formation that backfired completely. On 21 May 2016, PSG defeated Marseille 4–2 in the 2016 Coupe de France Final. PSG thus won the Ligue 1–Coupe de France–Coupe de la Ligue domestic treble for the second consecutive season and equalled Marseille's all-time record of ten Coupe de France titles. On 3 June 2016, when asked for his assessment of the season during an interview given to the newspaper Le Parisien, PSG's president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi described the 2015–2016 season as a failure because of PSG's elimination from the Champions League by Manchester City at the quarter-final stage, and stated that changes would be made before the following season and a new cycle would begin. On 27 June 2016, PSG announced that Blanc and assistant coach Jean-Louis Gasset had left the club by mutual agreement that "preserved the interests of both parties", noting that Blanc had "left a significant mark on the great history of Paris Saint-Germain". The French sports daily L'Équipe reported that Blanc would receive a severance deal worth 22 million euros.The, Guardian, 3 June 2016. original (fr): VIDEO. PSG. Nasser Al-Khelaïfi : « Il est temps que ça change », Le Parisien.
On 13 February 2022, he was terminated because of poor results and replaced by Nicolás Córdova.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||
| Montpellier HSC | 1983–84 | Division 2 | 0 |
| 1984–85 | 5 | ||
| 1985–86 | 6 | ||
| 1986–87 | 18 | ||
| 1987–88 | Division 1 | 6 | |
| 1988–89 | 16 | ||
| 1989–90 | 14 | ||
| 1990–91 | 15 | ||
| Napoli | 1991–92 | Serie A | 6 |
| Nîmes | 1992–93 | Division 1 | 1 |
| Saint-Étienne | 1993–94 | Division 1 | 5 |
| 1994–95 | 13 | ||
| AJ Auxerre | 1995–96 | Division 1 | 4 |
| FC Barcelona | 1996–97 | La Liga | 1 |
| Marseille | 1997–98 | Division 1 | 13 |
| 1998–99 | 4 | ||
| Inter Milan | 1999–2000 | Serie A | 3 |
| 2000–01 | 3 | ||
| Manchester United | 2001–02 | Premier League | 3 |
| 2002–03 | 1 | ||
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year Laurent Blanc – International Appearances Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, 23 August 2001 | |
| France | 1 |
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 0 | |
| 3 | |
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 0 | |
| 3 | |
| 0 | |
| 2 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Laurent Blanc | |||||||
| 1 | Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse, France | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification | |||
| 2 | Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly | |||
| 3 | Parc des Princes, Paris, France | 3–1 | 3–1 | UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying | |||
| 4 | Poznań Stadium, Poznań, Poland | 4–1 | 5–1 | Friendly | |||
| 5 | Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel | 2–0 | 4–0 | 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification | |||
| 6 | 3–0 | ||||||
| 7 | Tampere Stadium, Tampere, Finland | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification | |||
| 8 | Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, France | 3–0 | 4–0 | UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying | |||
| 9 | MHPArena, Stuttgart, Germany | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly | |||
| 10 | St James' Park, Newcastle, United Kingdom | 1–0 | 3–1 | UEFA Euro 1996 | |||
| 11 | Parc des Princes, Paris, France | 1–0 | 4–0 | Friendly | |||
| 12 | Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France | 1–1 | 3–3 | Friendly | |||
| 13 | Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca, Morocco | 1–1 | 2–2 | Friendly | |||
| 14 | Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens, France | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1998 FIFA World Cup | |||
| 15 | Stade de France, Paris, France | 2–2 | 3–2 | Friendly | |||
| 16 | Jan Breydel Stadium, Bruges, Belgium | 1–0 | 3–0 | UEFA Euro 2000 |
| + Managerial record by team and tenure | ||||
| Bordeaux | 8 June 2007 | 16 May 2010 | ||
| France | 2 July 2010 | 30 June 2012 | ||
| Paris Saint-Germain | 25 June 2013 | 27 June 2016 | ||
| Al-Rayyan SC | 19 December 2020 | 13 February 2022 | ||
| Lyon | 9 October 2022 | 8 September 2023 | ||
| Al-Ittihad | 13 July 2024 | present | ||
Auxerre
Barcelona
Manchester United
France U21
France
Individual
Al-Ittihad
Individual
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