The Death of Gérard Houiller has plunged French and world football  in mourning. Indeed, the former coach of the English club Liverpool, Gérard Houiller, left this Monday, December 14 in Boulogne. The 73-year-old suffered from severe heart problems and recently underwent an aorta operation.

With a remarkable track record, he is an emblematic figure of football who is leaving again this year. The death of Gérard Houiller is a great loss.

Death of Gérard Houiller, an impressive track record

Gérard Houllier is a French football coach, born on September 3, 1947 in Thérouanne (Pas-de-Calais). He was an amateur player at Hucqueliers (1959-1968), Alsop (1968-1969), and Le Touquet (1971-1976). Gérard Houllier was first a teacher – an animator at the Arras Normal School of Teachers in Pas-de-Calais, then an English teacher at ESC Lille (now SKEMA Business School) before embarking on a career as a professional coach.

He signed with Paris Saint-Germain for the 1985-86 season where he won a French league title. He then joined the French Football Federation. This led to his appointment at the end of 1988 as assistant to Michel Platini, the national coach at the time. After the victory of Les Bleus at the 1998 World Cup, Gérard Houllier left the DTN and left to coach the legendary club Liverpool. The death of Gérard Houiller affects European football.

Initially, he was associated with Roy Evans, but he was quickly dismissed. At the helm of the Reds, he did not have a great success in the league, but achieved an exceptional 2001 season, winning the two national cups (the FA Cup and the League Cup), the UEFA Cup, and then the European Super Cup. He left England in 2004 and returned to France. He coached the Lyon club with whom he won several trophies.

Until the death of Gérard Houiller, he had become the world director of the football division of the Red Bull group. He was responsible for all the clubs the brand owns as well as training centres in Brazil and Ghana: (Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull New York, RB Leipzig, Red Bull Brasil, Red Bull Ghana, FC Liefering).

The death of Gérard Houiller because of a fragile heart

The death of Gérard Houiller does not surprise. Gérard Houllier had been suffering from serious heart problems for several years. It was already the aorta who had played a bad trick on the coach almost 20 years ago, in 2001, when he had been taken ill in the middle of the game. Gérard Houllier had not had a heart attack that day, but had been troubled in the chest and was then taken to the emergency room. He then underwent a « major » open-heart operation after a case of « dissection of the aorta » was discovered and was narrowly saved.

After leaving Liverpool in 2004 with a nice run and a restored image, Gérard Houllier joined OL the following year, where he won the French championship twice (2006 and 2007) and shined in the Champions League, with a quarter-final elimination against AC Milan in 2006. He left Lyon in 2007 for « personal reasons » and joined Aston Villa in September 2010 after a stint at DNT. He will remain on the Lions bench for less than a year. Catched up with his heart problems and urges his doctors to stop his coaching career at the highest level, too traumatic for his heart. He will leave the club in May 2011.

Tributes were paid to him from all over the news of the death of Gérard Houllier Senegalese player Sadio Mané paid a moving tribute to the man via his twitter account. « I will always be grateful for the impact you have had in my career. Rest in peace, » said the Senegalese.

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