Lucien Favre (; born 2 November 1957) is a Swiss professional football manager and former player who most recently managed club OGC Nice. Favre was a playmaker for various Swiss and French clubs, the longest for Servette FC, with whom he also won the championship. As a manager, he won the Swiss Cup and the Swiss championship with Servette and Zürich. In Germany, Favre also managed Hertha BSC and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Club career
At club level, Favre played for Lausanne-Sports, Neuchâtel Xamax,
Toulouse FC and
Servette FC, earning a reputation as a skillful and intelligent
playmaker. When Pierre-Albert Chapuisat destroyed his knee in 1985, he could not play for eight months. It's still considered one of the worst fouls in Swiss footballing history.
[[1], watson.ch, 13 September 2016.] Favre announced his retirement in 1991.
International career
Favre amassed 24 caps for the Switzerland national team.
Notably, he scored his first and only international goal on his debut, netting in Zürich against the Netherlands on 1 September 1981 in the same game, in which both
Ruud Gullit and
Frank Rijkaard also made their first appearance for their respective country. Favre earned his last cap for Switzerland against Portugal in a 3–1 away loss on 26 April 1989 played in
Lisbon.
Managerial career
Echallens
Favre's coaching career started in 1991 as the under-14 assistant manager with
FC Echallens. The following year, he took over the under-17 team before being appointed manager of the first team in 1993. Under his leadership, Favre's young squad surprisingly earned promotion to the Nationalliga B. The promotion is still the most outstanding achievement in the club's history.
Neuchâtel Xamax
After four years with Echallens, Favre was named Academy Manager of Neuchâtel Xamax. The move allowed him to experience the overall operation of a professional club.
Yverdon-Sport and Servette
In January 1997, Favre was appointed manager of Yverdon Sport,
who was struggling at the bottom of the Nationalliga B at that stage. In 1999, he guided his side to the Nationalliga A. The following season, they unexpectedly achieved fifth-placed finish in the table, still Yverdon's best ranking in the top-flight to date.
In the summer of 2000, Favre decided to join Servette FC, a long-established club based in Geneva, where he had already won the league as a player. The highlights of his spell in Geneva were a 5–2 league win against Neuchâtel Xamax,
Zürich
In 2003, Favre was appointed Zürich manager.
His first match as Zürich manager was a 2–1 loss to
FC Basel.
In the 2003–04 season, Zürich finished in fifth place, one place below a 2004–05 UEFA Cup spot,
and lost in the semi–finals of the Swiss Cup 6–5 to Grasshoppers.
He won the
Swiss Cup in 2005 beating
FC Luzern in the final.
The following season, Zürich ended their 25-year wait for a league title with a dramatic final day victory against Basel to win the Swiss Super League. They were also knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the first round.
During the 2006–07 season, Zürich were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round.
On 29 May 2007, after securing another Swiss title, he was awarded the Swiss Manager of the Year award for the second year in a row.
Hertha BSC
On 1 June 2007, German
Bundesliga club
Hertha BSC announced that Favre had agreed to sign a three-year deal as its head coach.
He started the 2007–08 season with a 3–0 win against SpVgg Unterhaching in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.
During the 2008–09 season, he guided Hertha to an excellent fourth-place position,
The 2009–10 season, however, did not look as promising for Hertha – its increasing financial difficulties prevented them from recruiting efficiently. Furthermore, three of the club's top players left in the summer: Josip Šimunić, Andriy Voronin and Marko Pantelić. At the end of September 2009, Hertha were struggling in the league and Favre was relieved of his duties by the club.
Borussia Mönchengladbach
On 14 February 2011, Favre was named as the successor of Michael Frontzeck as head coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach.
He took over when the team was sitting at the bottom of the league with only 16 points after 22 match days, seven points adrift of Bundesliga safety.
He instigated an immediate improvement in form and although the club still struggled, they eventually managed a narrow win against
VfL Bochum in a two-legged relegation play-off to secure their place in the Bundesliga.
In the following season, the team surpassed all expectations by finishing in fourth place, thereby qualifying for the early stages of the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League.
During the 2013–14 season, Borussia Mönchengladbach were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal in the first round
The 2014–15 Bundesliga season was Favre's most successful season to date, with Gladbach finishing in third place and directly qualifying for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage.
After losing the first five league games of the 2015–16 season, Favre resigned on 20 September 2015.
Nice
On 24 May 2016, Favre was appointed as
OGC Nice manager, replacing
Claude Puel.
This appointment was widely considered as a coup for Nice by the French media. He brought in only one backroom staff,
Adrian Ursea.
[ RAYMOND DOMENECH ENCENSE LUCIEN FAVRE, Le Matin, 14 October 2016.][ Qui est Adrian Ursea, le nouvel adjoint de Lucien Favre à l'OGC Nice?, Nice Matin, 9 June 2016.] In his first season, Nice, bolstered by striker Mario Balotelli, finished third after leading the league for much of the season, and qualified for the Champions League, their best league position in decades.
His second season, however, did not live up to the expectations, as Nice finished 8th, and were eliminated in the Champions League qualifiers.
Favre subsequently departed.
Borussia Dortmund
On 22 May 2018, Favre was appointed as manager of Borussia Dortmund, with a contract lasting until 30 June 2020.
During his debut season, he became the first-ever manager to remain unbeaten in his first 15 Bundesliga matches with the club.
This includes a 4–1 win against
RB Leipzig, a 7–0 win against 1. FC Nürnberg, and a 4–0 win against Atlético Madrid.
On 3 August 2019, Dortmund won the German Super Cup.
He was sacked on 13 December 2020 after a string of poor results, including a 5–1 thumping at home against newly-promoted
VfB Stuttgart.
Favre finished with a record of 67 wins, 17 draws, and 23 losses.
Return to Nice
On 27 June 2022, Favre returned to Nice as manager.
His first game in charge was a 1–1 draw with
Toulouse FC on 7 August.
His first win came on the 31st of said month against
Lille OSC 1–2 away from home.
Favre was sacked in January 2023 following a 1–0 Coupe de France loss to third tier side Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne.
Style of management
Favre's teams play a dynamic, quick and attacking-minded football where ball possession and change of tempo alternate. This attractive style of play has brought results in every club he has managed. Furthermore, Favre is very skillful tactically, leaving his opponents struggling to penetrate his well-organized sides. His teams tend to shoot less than others but have a high conversion rate, also with shots coming from outside the box. Favre likes the opponents conversion rate to be on the low end. His teams stick out at the wrong end of
expected goals statistics. Favre has a reputation of predicting well how opposing teams, coaches or players tend to react in certain situations. To play this style Favre pays attention to details and technique especially one-to-one.
[ Gladbach: luckiest team in Europe or a blind spot in expected goals?, saturdaysonthecouch, 18 May 2015][ How in the World Does Nice Overperform Expected Goals? Part One: The Defence, Ashwin Raman, 17 August 2017.][ How in the World Does Nice Overperform Expected Goals? Part Two: The Attack, Ashwin Raman, 24 September 2017.][ statsbomb BVB 2018/19. Retrieved 5 January 2019.][ Das Favre-Rätsel, 11freunde, 22 May 2018.]
Favre is also well known for his ability to develop talented young players and introduce them into the first team. Under his leadership, Blerim Džemaili, Almen Abdi, Steve von Bergen and Gökhan Inler all made their debut with the Switzerland national team before signing for foreign clubs. In 2007, Zürich became Swiss champions with an average age of 21.5 years. He is also credited with raising the game of German starlet Marco Reus, whose fine performances procured a call up to the Germany national team and a high-priced move to league champions Borussia Dortmund; Marc-André ter Stegen, who eventually joined FC Barcelona; and Christoph Kramer. Another example of his ability to develop youngsters into widely sought after, talented players is seen in Granit Xhaka, who initially struggled when he joined Gladbach but, under Favre's tutelage, eventually thrived, becoming one of the best central midfielders in Germany and sealing a move to Arsenal for a fee reported to be in excess of €30 million.
Managerial statistics
| + Managerial record by team and tenure |
|
|
| Servette FC | 1 July 2000 | 30 June 2002 | |
| Zürich | 1 July 2003 | 1 June 2007 | |
| Hertha BSC | 1 June 2007 | 28 September 2009 | |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | 14 February 2011 | 20 September 2015 | |
| OGC Nice | 24 May 2016 | 20 May 2018
| |
| Borussia Dortmund | 22 May 2018 | 13 December 2020
| |
| OGC Nice | 27 June 2022 | 9 January 2023
| |
|
Honours
Player
Servette
Individual
-
Swiss Footballer of the Year: 1982–83
Manager
Echallens
-
Nationalliga B promotion: 1993–94
Yverdon Sport
-
Nationalliga A promotion: 1998–99
Servette
Zürich
-
Swiss Super League: 2005–06, 2006–07
-
Swiss Cup: 2004–05
Borussia Dortmund
Individual
-
Swiss Manager of the Year: 2006, 2007
-
Sport1 Manager of the Year: 2011
-
VDV Bundesliga Coach of the Season: 2011–12
-
Kicker Player Poll Manager of the First Half: 2013–14
-
Kicker Player Poll Manager of the Season: 2014–15
External links
