Luis Fernandez

Club career

Fernandez was born in Tarifa, Spain, and moved to France with his parents at age nine. He began playing football at the AS Minguettes and became a naturalized French citizen in 1981. He signed his first professional contract at age 19 with Paris Saint-Germain. After the elimination from the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and just after he had won the Division 1 championship with PSG, Fernandez made the decision to join Jean-Luc Lagardère's team Racing Club de Paris. However, in spite of a team that was strong on paper, the club and Fernandez did not succeed, and he left Racing after three seasons. From Racing, Fernandez joined Cannes in 1989, a more modest club. At club level, Cannes was relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the 1991–92 season, but Fernandez decided to remain with the club and end his career when his contract expired. A few weeks, however, Cannes named Fernandez its manager, and so he finished the season as player-manager, leading Cannes back to Division 1 at the end of the season. He then retired from playing professionally to become a full-time manager.

International career

Fernandez quickly established himself as an expert in winning the ball, but also capable of precise passing, and at the end of 1982, he was called up for the France national team and debuted against the Netherlands on 10 November 1982. At age 23, Fernandez was immediately an important part of the team that only months earlier had been semi-finalists of the 1982 FIFA…

Cannes

After Cannes' promotion to Division 1, Fernandez continued his work at the club and led it to UEFA Cup qualification. He was named Manager of the Year at the end of the 1993–94 season, on grounds of Fernandez's alluring philosophy of offensive tactics with a use of young players. The profile of Fernandez particularly interested Paris Saint-Germain. Despite winning Division 1 and having a good run in the UEFA Champions League, PSG failed to play attractive football, partly because of Portuguese manager Artur Jorge, who applied a more rigid strategic system. The board of PSG saw in Fernandez the ideal manager to reform the image of the club.

Paris Saint-Germain

In the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League, Fernandez's PSG reached the semi-finals by eliminating an FC Barcelona side led by Johan Cruyff. In the same year, his team also picked up the Coupe de France against RC Strasbourg and the Coupe de la Ligue against SC Bastia. Despite then losing David Ginola and George Weah, PSG won their first European honour, the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup against Rapid Vienna.

Athletic Bilbao

Fernandez had four seasons in charge of Athletic Bilbao in Spain's La Liga from 1996 to 2000. In 1997–98, he led the team to UEFA Champions League qualification as runners-up to Barcelona.

Return to Paris Saint-Germain

After turning down the vacant position at rivals Olympique de Marseille the previous month, Fernandez returned to PSG in December 2000,…

Player

Paris Saint-Germain

French Division 1: 1985–86 Coupe de France: 1981–82, 1982–83 France

UEFA European Championship: 1984 Artemio Franchi Cup: 1985 Individual

French Player of the Year: 1985 Étoile d'Or: 1986 World XI: 1986, 1987

Manager

Paris Saint-Germain

Coupe de France: 1994–95 Coupe de la Ligue: 1994–95 Trophée des Champions: 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1995–96 UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2001