After four years on the side-lines, former France, Bordeaux and PSG coach Laurent Blanc is reportedly about to make his big comeback on the coaching scene.
The wait has been too long, but it's about to end. Unemployed since the end of his experience at PSG four years ago, Laurent Blanc is getting ready to embark on "a new and ambitious project".
That is what second-tier club Niort revealed in a press release stating that coach Franck Passi has just resigned form the helm of the club in order to follow Blanc on his new - but as-yet unspecified - adventure.
"We tried to get Franck to reconsider his commitment [to following Blanc]," the statement read. "But he didn't want to renege on his promise and that's to his credit."
'Raring to go'
At 54 years old, Blanc is ready to take the plunge again. The coach who took Bordeaux to four titles - two Trophées des Champions (2008 and 2009), and the Ligue 1 Conforama-Coupe de la Ligue BKT double in 2009 - before claiming 11 titles, incuding France's first-ever four-title domestic clean sweep in 2014-15, in his three-year stint with Paris Saint-Germain, has now recharged his batteries.
"It's true that right now he's very keen to get back on a bench. He's raring to go," confirmed old friend and fellow coach Antoine Kombouaré in an interview on RTL last weekend. "He would like to find a project where there is a chance to win trophies."
Blanc has engaged the services of super-agent Jorge Mendes in order to find this new project, and it seems the wheels are in motion. The only thing left to know now is Blanc's final destination…
