Who is Christophe Galtier? PSG’s new head coach to replace Pochettino
The new PSG manager isn’t the most well-known outside of France, but his achievements are no less impressive. And soon, people will know his name.
News broke on Monday that Christophe Galtier, former Nice coach, will take over for Mauricio Pochettino as head coach of Paris Saint-Germain. The 55-year-old has agreed to a two-year contract with the club and has his work cut out for him with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé to subjugate. Though he’s not particularly well-known outside of his native France, Galtier has an impressive resume.
Who is Christophe Galtier?
Galtier was born in Marseille, France and played soccer for his hometown club as well as Lille, Toulouse, Angers, Nimes, Monza, and Liaoning, from 1985-1999. After retiring as a player without any trophies, Galtier began coaching. He started his coaching career with Marseille as assistant coach immediately.
After assistant coaching for a while, he became the head coach at Saint-Etienne in 2009. He stayed there for almost eight years, bringing the team to the Coupe de la Ligue title in 2013. He finally left the club in 2017 to take over at Lille in the middle of a relegation battle.
Though his playing style was not the most popular, Galtier managed to keep Lille safe and the team qualified for the Champions League in his first season with them, finishing second overall. Despite this, his success in the Champions League has been less than great, with five losses, one tie, and no wins in six appearances. He can say that he led Lille to the Ligue 1 title in the 2020-21 season, though, when they finished one point ahead of Thomas Tuchel’s PSG.
After his most successful season with Lille, Galtier resigned and took over as manager for Nice, taking them from ninth place to fifth place. They lost to Nantes in the French Cup Final.
Though he doesn’t yet have the experience of working with big stars, Galtier has proven he knows how to help a team improve. PSG will be looking to win their first European title since 1996, and Galtier is the man tasked with getting them there.
“Christophe is for me, one of the best coaches I’ve had,” said Lille player José Fonte. “He deserves the success that he’s having. I’m sure that he will continue to be successful because of his way of managing.”
“He knows how to get the best out of a player. Then, as a coach, we know exactly what we have to do on the field, which is fantastic. We know how to defend, we know how to attack. And once you have this type of organization, you are very close to being successful.”