Engaged in an uncertain fight to stay in Ligue 1, FC Nantes has chosen to separate from Antoine Kombouaré and to bet on internal solutions for the final sprint, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned on Monday 8 May evening from sources close to the club.
Pierre Aristouy, coach of the U19s, will be responsible for managing the team for the last four matches of the season, assisted by Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, current coach of the women’s team.
Called to the rescue in February 2021, Kombouaré had managed to snatch the maintenance that season and carried the team to the Coupe de France in 2022, its first title in more than two decades.
But despite an honorable run in the Europa League and a new Coupe de France final in 2023, he could not prevent the team from losing ground in the league.
Since mid-February, Nantes has not won a single one of its league matches. Now 17ᵉ and first in relegation, Waldemar Kita’s club is two points behind Auxerre and three behind Brest and Strasbourg, who are also participants in this battle for maintenance.
The coaches pass, Waldemar Kita stays
And the team has just suffered three heavy setbacks in just one week: a humiliation against Toulouse at the Stade de France (5-1) and two 2-0 defeats against Brest and Strasbourg, direct competitors for maintenance.
President Waldemar Kita, a big consumer of coaches, has therefore chosen to separate from the Kanak coach in an attempt to create an electric shock.
A former striker trained in Nantes, where he made his professional debut in 1999, Aristouy returned to the banks of the Loire in 2017 as a coach and had convincing results with the U19s.
Vizcarrondo, a former Venezuelan international, also wore the Yellow and Green jersey (2013-2017). He returned in October 2022 to take charge of the women’s team, in difficulty in D2 after coming very close to the rise in D1 last season.