After his more than two-year detour to Dortmund and two fast transfers, the Romand returns to Ligue 1 and the Côte d’Azur. But football life there is no longer what it was between 2016 and 2018. Ineos now runs the club. So far restless – and above all moderately successful.
64-year-old Swiss Lucien Favre is back in Nice.
The best-known Swiss coach export makes U-turns at the last second. This reputation follows Lucien Favre. Since leaving Dortmund in December 2020, he has been in agreement with Premier League club Crystal Palace six months later. Nearly. “I wouldn’t bet on that,” said a person close to him at the time, although well-known English media announced the coach in the Premier League.
A few weeks ago, the return to Mönchengladbach seemed a fact. But the Bundesliga club is more unstable than before, also economically. Not enough good prospects, too small promises. Favre already had the door handle in his hand – and let it go again. No, not Gladbach. Everything too vague.
The return of the 64-year-old Frenchman to the organization of the OGC Nice also dragged on. Another U-turn? But this time the node is not located at Favre, but in Paris. Because Paris Saint-Germain now seems capable of anything under Qatari aegis.
PSG are baiting coach Christophe Galtier, who became French champion with Lille in 2021 and is not happy in Nice in his first year. But first PSG has to get rid of and reconcile its previous coach Mauricio Pochettino and his entourage. According to «L’Equipe» cost 15 million euros. With Galtier on an ongoing contract at Nice, he needs to be bought out. Cost point: 10 million. Or so. Is secondary for Qatar.
Favre is back in the country of his mother tongue
So Favre waits until the windfall from Qatar settles on Pochettino and Co. and Nice. Only now is the way clear for a return that can easily be interpreted as a step backwards and not as progress. No longer Bundesliga, but Ligue 1. No longer Champions League, but Conference League. But Favre knows the Côte d’Azur, between 2016 and 2018 he already worked in Nice. Above all, he moves again in his mother tongue. In the looming crises, communication in Germany has repeatedly become a weak point for French-speaking Switzerland.
The OGC Nice celebrates the return of Lucien Favre.
At the weekend he and his wife visited the new apartment building in Nice. He led the first training session on Monday morning and will be presented to the media in the afternoon. The air feels familiar to him. As a player, he was only on the road in western Switzerland and France (Toulouse), as a coach he expanded his working area to German-speaking Switzerland (FC Zurich) and Germany. First Hertha Berlin (2007-2009), later Borussia Mönchengladbach (2011-2015) and most recently Borussia Dortmund (2018-2020).
Things are different in Nice than they used to be, although the sporting director is still Julien Fournier. He is said to have been one of the reasons why Favre shortened his first time in Nice despite the ongoing contract and let Dortmund buy him out for a few million euros in 2018. The Nice/Favre liaison was not stable. As early as 2017, after just one year, there were rumors of a change because of Dortmund’s advances.
The Fournier/Galtier duo quickly stopped working in Nice. If, contrary to expectations, Fournier stays at the club, he will have to come to terms with Favre. And vice versa. Favre should have more influence on the transfers than before.
What is new for Favre is that the multi-billion dollar petrochemical group Ineos is pulling the strings in Nice. Ineos entered in 2019, has since invested tens of millions of euros and within a short time used two coaches in Patrick Vieira and Galtier and an interim coach in the former Favre assistant Adrian Ursea. Last season was delicious. This includes the Galtier/Fournier conflict and unsatisfactory results, but also serious riots in a home game against Marseille, which had to be stopped because of a pitch attack. The serious sanctions: ghost games and a point deduction.
And now: a new chapter. With Favre.
Nice had a respectable time with the coach, who hails from the small town of Saint-Barthélemy in Vaud. Especially the first season 2016/17 was excellent – autumn champion, 3rd place. In the following season, Favre managed to advance to the knockout rounds in the Europa League, but in the championship Favre did not get past 8th place.
Favre was number 2 behind Bayern
Anyone who relies on the statistics cannot say anything bad about the subsequent Favre years in Dortmund. Two times second in the Bundesliga, three times in the Champions League with qualification for the round of 16. The departure at the end of 2020 was bitter, especially after a 1:5 home defeat against Stuttgart and with leading players rebelling.
Again, that doesn’t change that Favre has built a reputation and independence over the years, especially economically. He doesn’t have to force anything anymore. Especially not to offer oneself somewhere.
The Ineos project seems to appeal to him, even though he may have noticed what Ineos did last season in Lausanne, for example. A long-established test match between the OGC and FC Lausanne-Sport will take place in Nice on July 2nd. Coincidentally, Favre meets Ludovic Magnin on the sidelines, who is considered Favre’s foster son. After the annus horribilis 2021/22 and relegation to the Challenge League, Ineos has recently started promoting FC in Lausanne Magnin images. On the one hand in Veston, on the other hand as a screaming, emotionalized player from the past.
Nice sports director Julien Fournier is said to have constantly interfered in Lausanne. As if a Super League club were to be managed by telephone like a grumbling tournament team. Whether Fournier leaves Nice or not. Favre is also a kind of shield for new Lausanne coach Magnin. The fact is: Ineos is having astonishing problems getting football projects off the ground in the long term.
That must also be a warning for Lucien Favre. He chooses the big words at the media conference: “This is an enormous project with Ineos. The club must always be in the top three.”