By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men’s professional team in a competitive match in a major European country on Monday but ended up on the losing side as Clermont Foot narrowly went down 2-1 at Brest in the French second division.
On her 40th birthday Diacre saw her new job get off to a perfect start with a goal after nine minutes but a Brest penalty sparked a revival by the hosts even though Clermont later struck the post.
“It’s never nice to lose, that’s obvious,” Diacre said. “We didn’t use the ball well, we didn’t develop our game as we could have, as we should have. But there are plenty of positive things. I have a young team and I’m happy with my players because they gave everything.”
The former international defender, who was given a bouquet of flowers before kickoff by her Brest counterpart, Alex Dupont, was appointed Clermont coach at the end of June, replacing another female coach – Portuguese Helena Costa – who quit before a single game claiming a lack respect by male colleagues. Costa’s appointment caused a media frenzy, only to quickly find her position untenable.
Prior to Diacre, Costa notwithstanding, the highest-profile female coach of a men’s team in Europe was Carolina Morace, who took charge of Italian Serie C1 team Viterbese for two matches in 1999.
Clermont finished 14th in the 20-team table last season and Diacre, who made 121 appearances for her national team as a player, insisted: “Clermont will have to be taken seriously this season.”
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