Former Liverpool & France Coach Gerard Houllier Passes Away Aged 73

Former Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon and France manager Gerard Houllier has sadly passed away at the age of 73. French outlet RMC reports that he died on Sunday night.

Houllier was a revered coach in France and England for 30 years. He was never a professional player, but undertook his first coaching job as a player-manager for provincial club Le Touquet in the 1970s. He eventually got a gig at Lens in 1982 and then PSG in 1985.

Houllier took Lens into the top flight and into the UEFA Cup, while he then guided PSG to what was their first ever French title in 1985/86. Two years after that, he was hired as assistant coach for the France national team in 1988 and took over the hotseat himself in 1992.

He presided over France’s infamous failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, but retained his international reputation as a leading and forward-thinking coach while in charge of Les Bleus’ junior national sides for the next few years.

Houllier moved abroad for the first time in his career in 1998 when Liverpool approached him to jointly manage the club alongside the long-serving Roy Evans. The co-manager experiment didn’t work and Evans left soon after, but Houllier remained in charge for six years in total.

Him time at Liverpool brought the club a cup treble in 2000/01 thanks to League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup successes, while the Reds later finished second in the Premier League in 2001/02, a season that saw him forced to take some time off after emergency heart surgery.

Houllier returned to France and guided Lyon to back-to-back Ligue 1 titles in 2005/06 and 2006/07.

His final job in management was in charge of Aston Villa during the 2010/11 campaign. But he was again affected by health issues and left the club by mutual consent soon after falling ill and being admitted to hospital towards the end of that season.

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