Valérien Ismaël

Valérien Alexandre Ismaël (born 28 September 1975) is a French professional football coach and a former professional player who is currently manager of EFL Championship club Watford.

Valérien Ismaël
Ismaël coaching LASK in 2019
Personal information
Full name Valérien Alexandre Ismaël[1]
Date of birth (1975-09-28) 28 September 1975
Place of birth Strasbourg, France
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Centre-back
Team information
Current team
 Watford (manager)
Youth career
1982–1984 AS Holtzheim
1984–1992 Strasbourg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1998 Strasbourg 87 (1)
1998 Crystal Palace 13 (0)
1998–2002 Lens 83 (5)
2001 → Strasbourg (loan) 9 (0)
2002–2004 Strasbourg 26 (2)
2003–2004 → Werder Bremen (loan) 32 (4)
2004–2005 Werder Bremen 32 (4)
2005–2007 Bayern Munich 31 (0)
2006–2007 Bayern Munich II 7 (2)
2007–2009 Hannover 96 18 (0)
Total 338 (18)
International career
1993–1994 France U18 8 (2)
1996–1997 France U21 12 (2)
Managerial career
2011–2013 Hannover 96 II
2013–2014 VfL Wolfsburg II
2014 1. FC Nürnberg
2015–2016 VfL Wolfsburg II
2016–2017 VfL Wolfsburg
2018 Apollon Smyrnis
2019–2020 LASK
2020–2021 Barnsley
2021–2022 West Bromwich Albion
2022 Beşiktaş
2023– Watford
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

During his playing career, Ismaël played for Racing Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, RC Lens, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich, and Hannover 96. As a player, he won the Coupe de France, the Coupe de la Ligue twice, the Bundesliga twice, as well as the DFB-Pokal on two occasions. Following his retirement, he moved into management, first as a reserve coach for a number of clubs before moving into senior management at 1. FC Nürnberg, then with VfL Wolfsburg before a notable spell with LASK of the Austrian Bundesliga and spells with Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion of the English Championship.

Early years

Ismaël was born to a Guadeloupean father[2] and an Alsatian mother,[3] growing up in Strasbourg on the border with Germany. Ismaël's grandfather is German.[4]

Playing career

Strasbourg

Ismaël made his debut for Strasbourg against Cannes on 15 January 1994. He went on to make 77 league appearances in his first spell with the club. Additionally, he appeared in five UEFA Cup matches, scoring once.

Crystal Palace

Ismaël was signed by Crystal Palace for £2.75 million from Strasbourg in January 1998, making him the most expensive player in the club's history.[5] Despite this, he only played 13 games for the London club and was only there for ten months from January to October 1998, before moving back to his native France to sign for Lens in October 1998.

Lens

Ismaël's time at Lens saw him regain his form after his brief and expensive spell in England. He played 83 times, scoring five goals. He also had a short loan spell at his old club Strasbourg during the 2000–01 Division 1 season but could not help them avoid relegation. He did however play for Strasbourg in the 2001 Coupe de France Final, in which they beat Amiens on penalties.[6] He returned to Lens for the 2001–02 Division 1 season where he was in particularly good form, playing 33 times and scoring on four occasions. However, he was sold back to Strasbourg for the following season following their promotion back to the top tier.

Back to Strasbourg

On moving back to his former club for a third spell, Ismaël was appointed captain. He led the club to a respectable 13th position and attracted interest from Europe because of his composed performances in defence. In his last spell at Strasbourg he made 26 appearances and scored twice. He appeared for his home club a total of 167 times in all competitions and netted seven goals.

Werder Bremen

Ismaël was loaned to Werder Bremen in 2003 where he appeared 32 times, scoring four goals. Bremen went on to win the German double in his first season at the club. He was sold to Werder prior to the following season, where once again he appeared 32 times, scoring four goals. However, Werder could only finish third. He made seven appearances in the UEFA Champions League as well, scoring twice.

Bayern Munich
Ismaël with Bayern Munich

Ismaël arrived at Bayern Munich in July 2005. He received a red card on his debut for the club, but finished the season winning the German league and cup double for the second time in his career. However, he only featured once in the 2006–07 campaign for the club due to his long term injury and was eventually released to join Hannover 96 in January 2008.[7] He made 31 league appearances for Bayern without scoring and eight Champions league appearances, scoring once against A.C. Milan in a 4–1 loss.

Hannover 96

Ismaël was brought to the club in order to strengthen the struggling defence and to provide leadership for his new teammates.[8] His first game for Hannover was against his previous club, Bayern, playing well for 45 minutes and helping his team maintain a 0–0. After he was substituted with a minor injury, Hannover conceded three goals in the second half.[9] After overcoming the injury, he became a key player for the team. Due to further injuries and a bad prognosis for recovery he retired on 5 October 2009. In total he made 18 appearances for Hannover.

International career

Ismaël had appearances for French under-18 and under-21 teams.[10] When he was not called up to the senior team, he wanted to represent Germany.[11] However, he was rejected by the German Football Association (DFB) because there was not enough connection to Germany. Answering questions of the German sports magazine Kicker, Ismael said the report that was published by the German tabloid Bild, the following: "That's not quite true. I am French, and I still hope for my chance to play for France. I'm feeling fine in Germany, but I do not want to volunteer. Only if Klinsmann wants me, then we would have to talk about it."[12] If former Germany coach Jürgen Klinsmann was interested in him, Ismaël wanted to check his ancestry.[11]

Gernot Rohr, an expert of French football, explained the permanent non-consideration of Ismaël: "Although Valérien was a U-21 international, he was never an option for the senior team. Of course Valérien is one of the better centre-backs, but he was never so striking that he could compete with the first-team regulars."[13] Ismaël saw it differently: "There used to be big names, okay. But today, I am no worse than those who are there." After Ismaël offered his services in October 2005 again to the German national team, he again received a rejection.[14] Later in March 2006, the German Football Association announced that Ismaël was not eligible to play for Germany because he had played a U-21 European Championship qualifier for France in August 1996. According to FIFA rules, he would have needed German citizenship already back in 1996 to switch now.[4]

It was reported that Togo also wanted to call up Ismaël to their squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, given his former wife is partially Togolese descent,[15] but he denied the approach and interest in the offer.[16]

Managerial career

Hannover 96

On 10 October 2009, Ismaël became the assistant general manager of Hannover 96. From 24 June 2010, he was also board member of the club.[17] On 28 November 2011, he took over the job of manager of the second team, Hannover 96 II.[18] In the 2011–12 season, Hannover II finished in sixth place with a record of 14 wins, eight draws, and 12 losses.[19] During the 2012–13 season, Hannover II finished in fourth place with a record of 16 wins, six draws, and eight losses.[20] Ismaël left on 30 June 2013.[18]

VfL Wolfsburg II

Ismaël was manager of VfL Wolfsburg II between 1 July 2013 and 5 June 2014.[21] Wolfsburg II won the Regionalliga Nord in the 2013–14 season[22] and lost to Sonnenhof Großaspach in the promotion play-off.[23]

1. FC Nürnberg
Ismaël as 1. FC Nürnberg manager in 2014

Ismaël became the new head coach of 1. FC Nürnberg on 5 June 2014[24] and won his first match in charge against Erzgebirge Aue 1–0 on 3 August 2014.[25] He went on to lose eight of his next 13 matches[26] and was sacked on 10 November 2014;[27] three days after a 2–1 loss to SV Sandhausen.[28] He finished with a record of four wins, two draws, and eight losses.[29]

Return to VfL Wolfsburg II

Ismaël returned to VfL Wolfsburg II on 1 June 2015.[30] Repeating the success of his first tenure with the team, Wolfsburg II won the 2015–16 Regionalliga Nord.[31] Once again though, Wolfsburg II lost in the promotion play-off, this time to Jahn Regensburg.[32]

VfL Wolfsburg

First-team head coach Dieter Hecking was sacked on 17 October 2016 and was replaced by Ismaël on an interim basis.[33] In his first four games in charge, Wolfsburg managed to win twice.[34] Ismaël was promoted from interim coach to permanent head coach on 7 November 2016.[35] Ismaël was sacked on 26 February 2017.[36]

Apollon Smyrnis

On 29 May 2018, it was announced that Ismaël had signed a two-year deal with Super League Greece club Apollon Smyrnis.[37] However, after only managing them for one league game against Larissa on 25 August 2018, in which Apollon lost 0–1 at home, he was dismissed from his managerial post six days later due to disagreements with the club's president.[38]

LASK

For the 2019–20 Austrian Football Bundesliga Ismaël was succeeding Oliver Glasner as the new head coach and sporting director of Austrian team LASK.[39] In the first few months of his tenure, he led the team to the best start in the club's history (17 points from 8 games). He also led LASK to a first ever appearance in the UEFA Champions League play-offs. After beating favourites FC Basel the team fell short against Club Brugge. In LASK's first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League the team won the group with Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, and Rosenborg Trondheim. After beating AZ Alkmaar in the round of 32, LASK lost against Manchester United. After the Covid-19 induced pause of football, LASK trained a couple of days too early with full body contact. It was heavily criticised by other clubs, and the media. The team did not play well any more, and 4 points were deducted for breaching the Corona rules, which let them end on fourth position in the league. LASK parted ways with Ismaël on 11 July 2020, as Dominik Thalhammer became available who succeeded him.[40]

Barnsley

When Gerhard Struber decided to join New York Red Bulls in autumn 2020, Barnsley hired Ismaël as his successor. He led them to a play-off position in the 2020-21 EFL Championship.[41]

West Bromwich Albion

On 24 June 2021, Ismaël joined recently relegated Championship side West Bromwich Albion, signing a four-year contract and becoming the club's first French manager.[42] On 2 February 2022, Ismaël left the club by mutual consent after a poor run of form.[43]

Beşiktaş

On 25 March 2022, Ismaël became the coach of Turkish club Beşiktaş. Prior to his arrival, the team was temporarily coached by one of the youth coaches, Önder Karaveli. Ismael's contract ran until the end of the 2022–23 season.[44]

Watford

On 10 May 2023, Ismaël joined EFL Championship club Watford as the club's new head coach, after the departure of Chris Wilder.[45]

Personal life

Ismaël is married to his German wife Karolina. He has a son (born 1995) from his first marriage. On 25 April 2013, Ismaël received German citizenship.[46]

Managerial statistics
As of 24 October 2023
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref.
PWDLGFGAGDWin %
Hannover 96 II 28 November 2011 30 June 2013 49 24 10 15 94 66 +28 048.98 [19][20]
VfL Wolfsburg II 1 July 2013 5 June 2014 36 23 6 7 85 29 +56 063.89 [23]
1. FC Nürnberg 5 June 2014 10 November 2014 14 4 2 8 14 25 −11 028.57 [26]
VfL Wolfsburg II 1 June 2015 17 October 2016 48 30 8 10 105 42 +63 062.50 [32][47]
VfL Wolfsburg 17 October 2016 26 February 2017 17 6 1 10 17 26 −9 035.29 [34]
Apollon Smyrnis 29 May 2018 31 August 2018 1 0 0 1 0 1 −1 000.00 [48]
LASK 27 May 2019 11 July 2020 50 31 6 13 102 57 +45 062.00 [49]
Barnsley 23 October 2020 24 June 2021 44 25 6 13 56 43 +13 056.82 [50]
West Bromwich Albion 24 June 2021 2 February 2022 31 12 9 10 35 32 +3 038.71 [51]
Beşiktaş 25 March 2022 26 October 2022 19 8 8 3 32 23 +9 042.11 [52]
Watford 10 May 2023 Present 14 4 5 5 17 16 +1 028.57
Total 322 166 61 95 555 360 +195 051.55 —

Honours

Player

Strasbourg

Lens

Werder Bremen

Bayern Munich

Manager

VfL Wolfsburg II

References
  1. "Beşiktaş'a Hoş Geldin Valérien Alexandre Ismaël" [Welcome to Beşiktaş Valérien Alexandre Ismaël] (in Turkish). Beşiktaş J.K. 25 March 2022. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  2. Bremer, Sven (23 February 2005). "Deutscher mit Akzent". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  3. "Valerien Ismael bekommt die Freigabe für den Club". nordbayern.de (in German). Nürnberger Nachrichten/Nürnberger Zeitung/Verlag Nürnberger Presse Druckhaus Nurnberg GmbH & Co. KG. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  4. Greitner, O.; Traemann, K.; Seidel, F. (3 March 2006). "Ismael: Er sollte für Deutschland spielen". Bild.de (in German). Axel Springer Verlag. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  5. Dyer, Ken (15 January 1998). "Palace move for £2.75m French star". Soccernet. Archived from the original on 22 February 1999. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  6. "Strasbourg 0-0 Amiens". lequipe.fr. 26 May 2001. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  7. "Valerien Ismael set for Hannover switch". fcbayern.t-com.de. 5 December 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2007.
  8. "Auf Ismael ruht die Hoffnung" [Hopes are pinned on Ismael] (in German). kicker.de. 17 December 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  9. "Luca Toni weltmeisterlich" (in German). kicker.de. 17 February 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  10. "Valérien Ismaël".
  11. "Ismael wird nicht für Deutschland spielen". Faz.net (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 30 August 2005. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  12. Salamon, Bernd (30 August 2005). "Ismael: Weiter für Frankreich". kicker online (in German). Olympia Verlag GmbH. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  13. Salamon, Bernd (5 September 2005). "Ismael: Die unerfüllte Liebe". kicker online (in German). Olympia Verlag GmbH. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  14. "Klinsmann erteilt Ismael eine Absage". Welt Online (in German). Axel Springer Verlag. 12 October 2005. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
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