Corinne Diacre

On 4 August, her 40th birthday, she became the first woman to manage in the top two tiers of a men's European League, in a 2–1 Ligue 2 loss at Brest.

Corinne Catherine Diacre (born 4 August 1974) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a defender.

She played her entire club career with Soyaux in the Division 1.

Diacre joined amateur club ASJ Soyaux in 1988, and quickly stood out for her strong character.

She remained with Soyaux throughout her entire career.

She was also an international player with the France national team from 1993 to 2005, captaining the team for much of that period.

Diacre began her French national team career at the age of 18, debuting for the team on March 9, 1993.

She was given captaincy a few years after her debut.

Diacre then went on to represent France in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 European Championships, serving as the team's captain.

Diacre scored the goal against England that qualified France for the 2003 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the first round.

In August 2005, Diacre retired from the France national team at the age of 31, finishing her career with 121 national team caps.

Diacre previously served as ASJ Soyaux's manager and the French national team's assistant manager.

Prior to her final 2006-07 season, she received many proposals from American clubs, but stayed in France.

In October 2006, she was injured during a match between Soyaux and Montpellier, suffering from an ACL tear in her right knee.

This injury ended her footballing career at the age of 32.

During her career 19-year-long career, she played around 350 D1 matches, which was a record at the time.

She has since been overtaken by Sandrine Soubeyrand, Gaëtane Thiney and Camille Abily.

She succeeded Olivier Echouafni and became the first woman in the role since January 2007.

In August 2014, she became the first woman to coach a men's professional football team (Clermont) in a competitive match in France.

Diacre continued to manage Clermont for three seasons until taking up the position as head coach of the French women's national team, a job she lost in March 2023.

Diacre’s tenure with France was notably marred with controversies.

In June 2014, French men's professional club, Clermont Foot, appointed her as the replacement for head coach Helena Costa.

After three full seasons all in Ligue 2, on 30 August 2017 Diacre left Clermont to become the manager of France's women's national team.

In 2017, Diacre stripped longtime French national team player Wendie Renard of her first-captaincy, and gave the armband to Amandine Henry instead.

In the same autobiography, Renard also claimed that Diacre refused to shake her hand at a national team camp in Montpellier in 2018, and “looked at (Renard) with disgust” for not introducing herself with the faire la bise instead.

Renard’s autobiography drew criticism from Noël Le Graët for revisiting old problems, and Diacre demanded Renard be punished, which Le Graët also pushed back against.

At the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, hosted by France, Diacre had the goal by the French Football Federation of reaching the final, despite the draw meaning that they would likely face favourites the United States in the quarter-finals.

Despite a 2–1 loss at that stage to that team, Diacre said that she would remain in the job for the duration of her long-term contract.

On 9 March 2023, the France Football Federation terminated Diacre amid reports of several top players, including captain Wendie Renard, refusing to play under her management.

Renard discussed her feud with Diacre in her 2019 autobiography “Mon Étoile”.

Renard wrote that Diacre stripped her of her captaincy under the reasoning that Renard had a low individual level and did not play as well for France as she did for her club team, Lyon.

Diacre generated controversy with her list of call-ups for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with notable absences including Kheira Hamraoui and Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

The absence of the latter Katoto garnered the most controversy, as she was the French league’s top scorer in the previous season.

France exited the tournament in the quarterfinals to the United States, the eventual winners of the tournament.

Later in the year, United States player and quarterfinal goalscorer Megan Rapinoe questioned Diacre’s tactics in the match, and suggested the team have a change in management.

On the morning of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Final, Diacre gave an interview with Téléfoot where she criticized Eugénie Le Sommer’s play during the quarterfinal match against the USA, alleging that Le Sommer ignored Diacre’s tactics and strayed too far to the left.

Diacre’s comments were put into question by Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas and former Lyon manager Reynald Pedros.

Aulas claimed that people from Lyon knew of “inconceivable things” that happened during preparation for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

Pedros replied to Diacre’s criticisms with a tweet praising Le Sommer’s play in the striker position with Lyon.

Diacre later apologized to Le Sommer for her comments, saying she was “still learning the rules of communication.”