Jean Tigana

Amadou Jean Tigana (born 23 June 1955) is a French former football player and manager. A central midfielder, he was renowned as one of the best midfielders in the world during the 1980s. He spent his entire playing career in France, and made 52 appearances and scored one goal for the France national team. Following his playing career, he became a manager, coaching clubs in France, England, Turkey and China.

Tigana started his professional career as a player at Toulon, having been spotted fairly late playing part-time while employed in a spaghetti factory and then as a postman. He moved to Lyon in 1978 and then to Bordeaux in a $4 million transfer. In Bordeaux's midfield for eight years, Tigana helped them to three league titles and three French cups, as well as taking them close to European glory on two occasions, losing in the semi-final of the European Cup and Cup Winners' Cup in 1985 and 1987 respectively.

He moved in 1989 to Marseille, and ended his career there following the 1990–91 season, winning two consecutive league titles, and reaching the European Cup final during the latter season, only to be defeated by Red Star Belgrade on penalties following a 0–0 draw.

Tigana was born in Bamako, French Sudan (now Mali) to a Malian father and a French mother. He represented France, and as an international Tigana joined Michel Platini, Luis Fernandez and Alain Giresse in what was termed "the Magic Square" (le Carré Magique) – one of the greatest midfield foursomes of all time. He was part of the France national football team that won UEFA Euro 1984 on home soil, defeating Spain in the final. Tigana's single international goal came against Hungary in the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals, in which France managed a third-place finish.

Tigana was a world-class box-to box midfielder, who usually played in the centre, and who was noted for his great movement, teamwork, pace and tireless stamina. Although Tigana was mainly responsible for his team's defensive duties, he also often ventured forward to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. His work ethic and expansive range of passing, from both long and short range, made him an excellent distributor which, when combined with his close control and simplistic yet efficient dribbling technique, made him a world–class midfielder. He was also well known for his contributions in the more advanced areas of the pitch, due to his ability to spot and execute defence-splitting passes.

For his first managerial role, Tigana returned to Lyon, coaching them from 1993 to 1995, before moving on to Monaco replacing Arsene Wenger, where he remained until 1999. They were French league champions in 1997 and Champions League semi-finalists a year later, beating Manchester United in the quarter-finals.

He took over as manager of English club Fulham in April 2000 and helped them to promotion from Division One to the FA Premier League as champions in his first full season. They finished 13th in their first top-flight season for more than 30 years and qualified for the UEFA Cup (via the Intertoto Cup), but he was sacked in April 2003, even though Fulham were in no danger of going down at this stage. The club later took him to court, claiming he had wrongly overpaid for certain players such as Steve Marlet, but the charges were dropped. Tigana then took Fulham to court for wrongful dismissal and won, winning a payout of over £2 million.

In October 2005, after a two years plus game hiatus, he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Turkish side Beşiktaş. During that same season, Beşiktaş won the Turkish Cup following an eight years hiatus.

Immediately after winning the 2007 Turkish Cup, Tigana announced that he was to leave Beşiktaş at the end of the season. He left Beşiktaş with two games to play, after a contract termination agreement with club board.

On 25 May 2010, Tigana returned to Ligue 1 coaching joining Bordeaux, replacing Laurent Blanc.

On 7 May 2011, after a severe defeat against Sochaux (0–4) and a verbal aggression from Bordeaux team fans against his daughter, who was in the stadium, he announced that he was to leave Bordeaux.

On 18 December 2011, it was announced that Tigana would coach Shanghai Shenhua from the 2012 season. On 15 April 2012, Tigana resigned as manager of Shanghai Shenhua after a run of poor form, leaving the Chinese club in the bottom five of its domestic league.

As of match played 7 April 2012

Bordeaux

• Division 1: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87
• Coupe de France: 1985–86, 1986–87

Marseille

• Division 1: 1989–90, 1990–91

France

• UEFA European Championship: 1984
• FIFA World Cup third place: 1986

Individual

• Division 1 Rookie of the Year: 1980
• French Player of the Year: 1984
• Onze d'Argent: 1984
• Ballon d'Or runner-up: 1984
• UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1984
• UEFA European Championship top assist provider: 1984
• World XI: 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987
• Onze Mondial: 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987
• FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1986
• Onze de Bronze: 1987

Monaco

• Division 1: 1996–97
• Trophée des Champions: 1997

Fulham

• Football League First Division: 2000–01
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002

Beşiktaş

• Turkish Cup: 2005–06, 2006–07
• Turkish Super Cup: 2006

Individual

• French Division 1 Manager of the Year: 1997

• French Manager of the Year: 1997

• Knight of the Legion of Honour: 2021

• Jean Tigana at the French Football Federation (in French)

• Jean Tigana – FIFA competition record (archived)