Lucien Favre (64) has a new club after turning down Borussia Mönchengladbach. He was already in charge of the first training session at OGC Nice – even before his predecessor’s departure was official.
French media had already reported last week that Favre could take over another ex-club in Nice after his rejection at Borussia Mönchengladbach. But the turn of events on Monday morning still came as a surprise: The Swiss was already on the pitch at the start of training for the Conference League participants and led the unit. At that point, Favre was not yet officially the club’s coach – but Christophe Galtier.
It wasn’t until midday after the session that the club did the inevitable and announced Galtier’s departure after just one season – and Favre’s return to the bench. He had already coached the club from 2016 to 2018. Since his dismissal at Borussia Dortmund at the end of 2020, the Swiss had not accepted a new engagement. At both Crystal Palace and Mönchengladbach, he had cancelled at the last moment.
The unusually late announcement of the personnel has its origins a few hundred kilometres further north. There, Paris St. Germain have still not officially announced Mauricio Pochettino’s dismissal, with media reports suggesting that negotiations over the Argentine’s severance pay have dragged on. In all likelihood, Pochettino’s successor will be Galtier, whom PSG will hire from Nice for a fee of around ten million euros. Nice did not provide any information on the future of the current coach in the club’s statement.
