Michel Hidalgo

Michel Hidalgo
France head coach, Michel Hidalgo, on March 25, 1981, at the Rotterdam stadium.
Personal information
Full name Michel François Hidalgo
Date of birth (1933-03-22)22 March 1933
Place of birth Leffrinckoucke, Nord, France
Date of death 26 March 2020(2020-03-26) (aged 87)
Place of death Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[1]
Position Midfielder
Youth career
US Normande
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1952–1954 Le Havre 47 (13)
1954–1957 Reims 66 (23)
1957–1966 Monaco 256 (26)
Total 369 (62)
International career
1962 France 1 (0)
Managerial career
1976–1984 France
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  France (as manager)
UEFA European Championship
Winner 1984
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Michel François Hidalgo (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl fʁɑ̃swa idalɡo]; 22 March 1933 – 26 March 2020) was a French professional footballer and manager. He was the head coach of the France national team from March 27, 1976 to June 27, 1984, with whom he won the UEFA Euro 1984 on home soil, also reaching the semi-finals of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Early life

Michel François Hidalgo was born on 22 March 1933 in Leffrinckoucke, Nord.[2][1] Michel and his twin brother Serge were born to a Spanish-born father, metal worker employed at the metallurgical company of Normandy ("société métallurgique de Normandie") and communist militant too, and a Parisian mother, both living in north-western France, and after 1935 grew up at Mondeville-Colombelle, Calvados, in Normandy.[3] In 1940 the Hidalgo family is evacuated as many working families in metallurgy, in order to flee the Wehrmacht advance. His family returns to settle in 1946 in the devasted vicinity of Caen near the same metallurgical factory, where the father still works and the twins started playing football in a patronage club created, from odds and ends, by the Catholic priest, Father Martin, a football lover.[4]. The promising junior player is recruited by "Union Sportive Normande", amateur workers' club, associated with the metallurgical factory where his father works.[5]

Club career

Center forward, wing forward, or sometimes, to preserve a result, libero before being midfielder, Hidalgo was champion of Normandie Juniors in 1952 with US Normande, before signing up to Le Havre's books for two seasons, later playing for Reims, with whom he played and scored a goal in the 4–3 defeat to Real Madrid in the 1956 European Cup Final, also winning a league title in 1955.[6][7]

Under the wing of Rocher, who signed him for Monaco, Hidalgo won two league titles and two national cup titles with Monaco. After the resignation of the founding president, his friend Just Fontaine, in 1965, he presided over the UNFP, a players' union and fights to impose a fair union definition of the 'contract on time' until june 1969.[8] Called to the French Federation of Foot-ball, he must leave this union function to Philippe Piat in 1970.

International career

At international level, Hidalgo was capped once for the France national team the fifth day of may 1962 in a friendly match in Florence against Italy.[9]

Later, Michel Hidalgo praised the game of great international players with strong personalities as Di Stefano, Pelé, Eusébio, Puskas, Kopa, Cruiff, Gerd Müller, Beckenbauer etc.[10]

Managerial career

Hidalgo started managing the Monaco second or amateur team from 1967 as a player coach and even served, under specific loan contract, as a player-manager with Menton during the season 1968–1969.[11] In 1970 he is called to the national technical direction (DTN, part of the French "Fédération" of Football) led by Georges Boulogne, as responsible for the southwest region[12]. In 1972, during a Brazilian tour, he was promoted to assistant of Georges Boulogne with the French team. He remained in office under the authority of Stefan Kovacs from 1973 to December 1975. On the first of January 1976 he became director of national selections.[13]

On 27 March 1976, he was appointed France national team head coach, replacing Ștefan Kovács – under whom he had previously served as a respectfull assistant – during a time when France was having difficulty in major tournaments. Included in his side was playmaker and captain Michel Platini, who helped the side turn a new page in their book and get back to winning ways. After suffering a first-round elimination at the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in the 1982 FIFA World Cup Hidalgo led the team to the semi-finals, where he lost to the West German side on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra-time; France eventually finished the tournament in fourth place. In 1984, he won the European Championship on home soil, beating Spain 2–0 in the final in Paris; this was France's first major international title. The exciting attacking style of football that he implemented with the France national side during this period was known as "champagne football" in the media. Hidalgo is also regarded as the architect of the French "carré magique" (magic square), which was nickname given to the creative and talented four-man midfield of the France national side during the 80s, which was made up of Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana, and Luis Fernandez.[6][7][14][15][16]

After his victory, he passed the reins over to his assistant Henri Michel and got a job as the National Technical Director, where he remained until 1986, afterwards choosing a managerial position at Marseille. He is considered an idol among the Marseille supporters. He strayed from the limelight after 1991, taking a sidelining role as a football pundit on Demain, c'est foot, a football show on TMC Monte Carlo.[17]

Death

Hidalgo died on 26 March 2020 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, at the age of 87, after a lengthy struggle with a disease.[6][7]

Quotes from Michel Hidalgo

On his homozygous twin brother Serge, first partner and opponent too in soccer

  • I learned to dribble, one-on-one with Serge, head to head, facing each other etc., that is to say with myself[18].

On the art of passing the ball (Equality and Fraternity in soccer and other collective balls sports)

  • "A good pass, well clean, a perfectly measured ball movement, just as it should be in the anticipation of his playing partner’s race, is like offering a vibrant handshake to his friend".[19]

On Freedom

  • "Soccer ball as sport taught me freedom. And that is why there can be no other soccer ball in my eyes than soccer ball in freedom".[20]

Honours

Player

Havre Athletic Club

Stade de Reims

Association Sportive de Monaco

Manager

France

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b "Michel Hidalgo". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Michel Hidalgo, coach who led France to centre stage in world football – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  3. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en liberté, opus cited, p. 183 and p. 142-143. His father born in Spain, at twenty years old, joined the French army during the Great War. Appointed "Chief of charge" in the early thirties, he had been sent to (French) Flanders to start blast furnaces. Hence this unusual place of birth for the twins Hidalgo. Naturalized French, his fiftieth-aged father wished to see his spanish family after the second world war. But "communist listed" and "banned from staying", he was immediately arrested and, after a few days of captivity, sent back by the Francoist authorities to avoid displeasing the French Republic. The father could never see his spanish family again.
  4. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en liberté, opus cited, p. 16-17, p. 142-143 et p. 183. Michel Hidalgo showing a quickly colored complexion and blue eyes felt like a Norman for most of his life, before his old age in Marseille, its Mediterranean city of adoption. His father was communist, but nevertheless liberal and tolerant, so Michel was a choeur child, and remained a practicing Catholic after having made his first communion and followed the activities of the patronage, where sports and in particular football figured. After a long practice of "wild or street football", the twins Serge and Michel join the amateur team of the patronage funded by Father Martin at 14 years old.
  5. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en liberté, opus cited, p. 14-17. Michel Hidalgo learns late the rudiments of this sport, with two high-quality coaches, Messieurs Saint-Pé and Leperlier.
  6. ^ a b c "French football mourns coaching great Hidalgo". UEFA. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d "Morto Hidalgo, profeta del "calcio champagne": vinse l'Europeo '84 da c.t. della Francia". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). 26 March 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  8. ^ This "contract on time" (contrat à temps) defending the player’s freedom will be a legal contract of first commitment to the training club for young players for a maximum duration of four years. What is the purpose of sports unionism? Interview with Michel Hidalgo, former coach of "Les Bleus", put on-line internet in February 2019, excerpt from "Bulletin Legisport", number 104, november-december 2013.
  9. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Liberté, opus cited, page 221. Final score Italy-France 2-1.
  10. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Liberté, opus cited, Part I chapter 5, on the evolution of the game and improvement of the technique at the elite level, page 71-85.
  11. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Liberté, ibidem, Part II "Instantanés" p. 155-191, chapter 5 p. 183-186 "Ma carrière" (My career) in particular p. 186.
  12. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Liberté, ibidem, p. 17. The officials, delegated to four other regions by this "National Technical Directorate"(Direction technique nationale or DTN) are then Henri Guérin, Gaby Robert, Jacky Braun and Marc Bourrier. These regional technical managers cover three main aspects of soccer : mass sport, elite sport and executive training. At the national level, Henri Guérin initiates a gathering of the "minimes" (young player before "cadets" and "juniors") and Hidalgo is thinking about managing apprentice footballers between schools and clubs.
  13. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Liberté, ibidem, p. 186.
  14. ^ "Francia, morto Michel Hidalgo: è stato il ct del calcio champagne". La Repubblica (in Italian). 26 March 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  15. ^ "Venerable Hidalgo relives Reims heyday". FIFA. 10 July 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  16. ^ D'Orsi, Enzo. "CALCIO – Francia" (in Italian). Treccani: Enciclopedia dello Sport (2002). Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  17. ^ Retired in the late 1990s, the former manager can gradually turn to the media. Michel Hidalgo hosts the show "Demain c'est foot" on TMC from 2002 to 2005 on Thursday evening with Thierry Apparu and Anne Allegrini, sharing analyses and anecdotes about soccer. On his way he continues to comment matches as a consultant thanks to the constant support of Jean-Michel Larqué ( Michel Hidalgo was my mentor), Jano Resseguié, and the enthusiastic "Marseillais" Eugène Saccomano, Rolland Courbis, Eric di Meco etc., which also makes him one of the consultants of the "Dream team on RMC". Source " Grid of television programs (TMC) from the 2000s
  18. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Football en Bleus, opus cited, p. 163.
  19. ^ Philippe Tournon, La Vie en bleu, éditions Albin Michel, 2021, 364 pages (ISBN 978-2-226-44338-0). In particular end of p. 93. It's a typical and mild phrase of the coach Hidalgo's speech in front of his team, put into writing by the author.
  20. ^ Michel Hidalgo, Autoportrait, in Football en liberté, opus cited, p. 154.
  21. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, Part II chapter 5 "Ma carrière", in particular p. 183-184. The winger Michel Hidalgo signed his first professional contract for Le Havre. Unfortunately HAC team goes down to the second division at the end of the 1953–54 season. And "I was transferred to Reims" as he said.
  22. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 184. During this season he performs his military service at the Joinville battalion, a sports unit of the French army, while always playing football.
  23. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 184.
  24. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 184-185.
  25. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, Part II chapter 5, p. 184-185. He left Reims with Léon Glovacki to play in Monaco in 1957.
  26. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 185. First victory for Hidalgo in "Coupe de France 1959" ahead of Saint-Etienne.
  27. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 185-186.
  28. ^ Football en liberté, ibidem, p. 185-186. It’s the complete season cumulating cup of France and championship.
  29. ^ This prize honoring a coach, practicing in France, is awarded by the weekly newspaper "France Foot-ball". Dominique Grimault, Tout ou presque sur le Foot, L'Archipel, Paris, 2006, 238 pages. Book adapted from Christoph Biermann, Fast alles über Fussball, Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln, 2005. In particular, paragraph "coach of the year" p. 123.
  30. ^ Magazine World Soccer, Trophies and awards in 1984. See also biographical notes on FFF or "Fédération Française de Football" website

Bibliography

  • Michel Hidalgo (with Jean-Philippe Rethacker), Football en liberté, Collection "Les témoins du Sport", Editions Ramsay, Paris, 1978, 252 pages. (ISBN 2-85956-057-2). Third part "Quarante-cinq ans d'équipe de France" p. 193-250, appears as a listing of matchs of the French team (called Les Bleus) from 1933 to the season 1977–78, including main dates of the career of Michel Hidalgo.
  • Michel Hidalgo (with Jean-Philippe Rethacker), Football en Bleus, Éditions Ramsay, Paris, avril 1982, 174 p. with table of contents. (ISBN 2-85956-259-1). Notebook out of text offering photographs with short captions, insertion of 32 pages between page 88 and 89, with the first nine pages about his family life or as a footballer or coach, and the following twenty-three pages showing the pose before-match of the major French soccer teams since 1944.
  • Guy Kedia and Roger Driès, with Just Fontaine, 1930-1982 : La France et ses 12 coupes du mondes, de Montevideo à Madrid, RTL Edition, 1982, 224 p. Two-page preface written by Pelé. (ISBN 2-86494-034-5)
  • Michel Hidalgo et Patrice Burchkalter, Le temps des Bleus. Mémoires, Jacob-Duvernet, Paris, 2007, 211 p. (ISBN 2-84724-146-4)
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