Jean-Marc Furlan


Jean-Marc Furlan is a French football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is currently in charge of Ligue 2 side AJ Auxerre.

Club career

Born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Furlan started his career at Bordeaux, where he signed his first professional contract in 1975, winning the Coupe Gambardella one year later. Furlan later also played for Stade Lavallois, Olympique Lyonnais, Tours FC, where he won promotion to the first division in the 1983–84 season, SC Bastia, Montpellier HSC, in which he achieved another promotion to the top-flight in the 1986–87 campaign, RC Lens and Saint-Seurin-sur-l'Isle, retiring there in 1993.
From 1976 to 1993, Furlan played as a sweeper in 420 professional games, 273 in Division 1 and 147 in Division 2.

Managerial career

Libourne

After retirement, Furlan later opened a sport shop. He felt the need to share his football passion and did so by volunteering as a coach for his son’s little league team. His aim was to develop the talent of young players. Due to financial difficulties, the club merged into Libourne/Saint-Seurin and started over in CFA 2.
Satisfied with the results of the Libourne youth team, Furlan was asked to manage the first-team squad from 1997 to 2004. This was a success; four seasons in a row, he guided Libourne to the round of 32 in the Coupe de France, eliminating Ligue 1 teams such as Olympique Lyonnais and FC Metz and making it to the quarter-finals. At the same time, Furlan achieved promotion from CFA 2 to CFA and then the National.
During his time at Libourne-Saint Seurin, Furlan was widely credited with having overseen the progress of youngsters such as Matthieu Chalmé and Mathieu Valbuena.

Troyes

Furlan’s performances as a manager drew the attention of several professional teams. He signed his first professional contract as a manager with Ligue 2 side Troyes AC in the 2004–05 season. His first season was very successful as Troyes was promoted to Ligue 1 and he was personally awarded Manager of the Year, being considered to be a shrewd tactician with collective spirit made up of well-oiled offensive tactics.

Strasbourg

Furlan was appointed manager of RC Strasbourg from 2007 to 2009.

Nantes

Furlan took over as the new manager of FC Nantes in the 2009–10 season.

Return to Troyes

In the 2010–11 season, Furlan returned to Troyes and the team was promoted to Ligue 1 the following season. Again in the 2014–15 season, Furlan easily led the side to promotion to Ligue 1, with four games before the end of the season, as well as winning its first national title, Ligue 2. He left the club on 3 December 2015.

Brest

On 30 May 2016, Furlan became the new manager of Stade Brestois 29 for three years after Alex Dupont, the previous manager, failed to bring them back up to Ligue 1 after three years in command.
Despite a low budget in the teams he managed, Furlan developed the talent of very good players such as Damien Perquis, Bafétimbi Gomis, Blaise Matuidi, Djibril Sidibé, Mounir Obbadi and Fabrice N'Sakala.
On 17 May 2019, after Furlan had led Brest to a Ligue 1 promotion, his contract ran out.

Auxerre

He signed with Ligue 2 side AJ Auxerre the same day.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Bordeaux
Tours
Montpellier
Libourne
Troyes
Brest
Individual