Christophe Galtier (born 23 August 1966) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Qatar Stars League club Al-Duhail. A defender, Galtier spent many of his 15 years as a player at Marseille with spells at six other clubs, four in France and one each in Italy and China.[4]
With Saint-Étienne, Galtier won the Manager of the Year award at the 2013 Trophées UNFP du football, which he shared with Carlo Ancelotti; he won again in 2019 after Lille finished in second place during the 2018–19 Ligue 1 season. Galtier won the trophy for a third time in 2021 after guiding Lille to their fourth Ligue 1 title in club history. After a one-year spell at Nice, Galtier joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2022, where he won the Ligue 1 title again.
Early life and playing career
Christophe Galtier[5] was born on 23 August 1966[6] in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône.[7] He spent a large part of his playing career in France with his hometown club Marseille, whom he represented in two different spells. In a fifteen-year career, he also played for Lille, Toulouse, Angers, and Nîmes in France, before ending his career with stints in Italy for Monza and with Liaoning in China.[citation needed]
In December 2009, Galtier was appointed the head coach of Saint-Étienne, with ASSE in danger of relegation following the departure of Alain Perrin.[9] In his first season, Galtier successfully guided ASSE to safety, finishing in 17th place. ASSE finished in the top 10 of Ligue 1 in the seven consecutive seasons of Galtier's tenure, with 4 of those seasons ending in a European place.
On 9 May 2017, Galtier announced he would be leaving Saint-Étienne at the end of the season upon the expiration of his contract.[12] At that moment he was the longest serving Ligue 1 manager still active, having taken the reins for eight years.[13] On 20 May 2017, he left the club after 361 games, including 147 wins, as Saint-Étienne head coach.
On 22 December 2017, Galtier became the new manager of Lille, who were at the 18th place in the league.[14] However, they eventually avoided relegation places by one point in the 2017–18 season. In the 2018–19 season, he led Lille to finish second and qualify for the next Champions League season, after a seven-year absence.[15]
During the 2020–21 season, Galtier guided Lille to their first Ligue 1 title in 10 years and the fourth in club history.[16] Galtier was praised by many pundits over the course of the season for both his tactics and his ability to develop young talent including Jonathan David, Renato Sanches, and Mike Maignan.[17][18] For his efforts, Galtier was named the Ligue 1 Manager of the Year for a third time.[17] On 25 May 2021, two days after winning the league title, he resigned as manager. He stated: "I simply have the deep belief that my time is up here".[19]
Nice
On 28 June 2021, Galtier was appointed as the new head coach of fellow Ligue 1 club Nice.[20] In his first season, he led the team to a fifth-place finish and a Coupe de France final, where they lost 1–0 to Nantes.[21][22] Nice qualified for the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round as a result.[23] He left Nice on 27 June 2022, being replaced by Lucien Favre.[24]
In April 2023, Galtier was accused of making racist comments whilst Nice manager, which he denied.[33] On 30 June 2023, together with his son John Valovic-Galtier, Galtier was taken into custody by the French police as part of the investigation into suspicions of racial and religious discrimination, at the time of his experience at Nice.[34][35] It was announced that he would face trial in December.[36] Among other things, Galtier allegedly said "Enough Muslims", "Algerians are the worst" and described black people as "King Kong".[37] At the trial he denied the allegations.[38] Galtier was acquitted of the charges by the court.[39]
^"Palmarés et Réussites". SO Les Caillols (in French). Archived from the original on 5 June 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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