French football icon Houllier passes

PARIS, France (AP):

Gérard Houllier, a Frenchman who led English club Liverpool Football Club (LFC) to three titles in one season, has died. He was 73.

Liverpool and the French football federation announced the death yesterday. French sports daily L’Equipe said Houllier, who also won the French league title with two different teams, died at home on Sunday after heart surgery in France.

“He is a true Liverpool legend, and he is a true coaching legend,” Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said. “He was really influential in the game. A great coach, but a human being who gave you a really warm feeling when you were around him. For all of us it is a big loss and a really sad day.”

French President Emmanuel Macron also paid tribute to Houllier, along with many current and former Liverpool players.

“Absolutely devastated by the news about Gérard Houllier,” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher wrote on Twitter. “Loved that man to bits, he changed me as a person and as a player and got LFC back winning trophies. RIP Boss.”

Houllier had a mediocre stint as coach of France’s national team in the early 1990s, his short-lived journey ending with a failure to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States.

SUCCESSFUL TENURE

His tenure at Liverpool was far more successful, leading the Reds to the FA Cup, League Cup, and UEFA Cup treble in 2001. He is one of only three managers, along with Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola, to have won three trophies with an English club in the same season.

Houllier joined Liverpool in 1998, initially as co-manager with Roy Evans before taking sole control within a few months after Evans stepped down. He rebuilt the team, bringing a more disciplined and tactically savvy approach using more foreign-based players.

“Gérard Houllier was still a young man at the age of 73,” former Manchester United manager Ferguson said. “He had fantastic football knowledge, which he gained during his extensive and varied career.”

Arsène Wenger, another Frenchman who had a big impact on the English league when he coached Arsenal, said his former rival “brought Liverpool into the modern era”.

“It was he who launched Steven Gerrard, who took Carragher forward, and so many others,” Wenger told L’Equipe. “He is enormously respected in Liverpool for everything he has done there.”

Houllier had recovered from heart surgery in 2001 after doctors operated on him for several hours to repair damage to a major artery near his heart. He stopped coaching in 2011 following a final job with Aston Villa.

Teams managed

1973–1976 Le Touquet

1976–1982 Nœux-les-Mines

1982–1985 Lens

1985–1988 Paris Saint-Germain

1988–1992 France (assistant manager)

1992–1993 France

1994–1996 France U18

1996–1997 France U20

1998 Liverpool (joint with Roy Evans)

1998–2004 Liverpool

2005–2007 Lyon

2010–2011 Aston Villa