Patrice Lair

As a footballer Lair played in the lower categories in France. After spending a decade with Stade Briochin and Avranches, in 1987 he moved to Périgueux, where he had his first experience as a coach, coaching the junior team while playing in the first team. He repeated these functions in St.-Malo before making his debut as a player-coach in Pouancé in 1993. He subsequently played and coached for Racing Doué, Pouzages, Trélissac, Briviste and Reims either as a player-coach or training junior teams, before retiring in 2001. After retiring, he was appointed the assistant coach of Stade de Reims, which was promoted in 2002 to Ligue 2 after a decade in lower categories. After first team coach Marc Collat was sacked in 2003, he was offered his position, but he declined the offer and moved to Angoulême as an assistant coach. In 2004, he held his first position as a first team coach at Villeneuve, and in 2005 he made his debut in women's football, taking charge of defending champion Montpellier Women. Under Lair's two year tenure, Montpellier won two national cups, reached the 2006 European Cup semi-finals and was the championship's runner-up behind Juvisy and Lyon. Lair subsequently returned to male amateur football, coaching Castelnau for two seasons. In 2009, he moved to Benin to coach Espoir de Savalou, but he left the team after a month. He also coached briefly the Rwanda under-17 national team, also serving as the senior team's assistant coach, the following year. In June 2010,…