Raymond Domenech

Raymond Domenech (; born 24 January 1952 in Lyon) is a retired French footballer and the former manager of the France national team.

France manager

2006 World Cup

On 12 July 2004, Domenech was a surprise choice to succeed Jacques Santini after the country's disappointing exit from UEFA Euro 2004 by losing in the quarter-final match to the eventual tournament-upset winners Greece. He was given the objective by the FFF to reach "at least" the 2006 FIFA World Cup semi-finals.

Qualifying

France struggled in the qualifiers, even though the team was seeded in a group that included the relatively unheralded teams of Israel and Switzerland. The Republic of Ireland were France's main contenders in the group, and looked like contributing to France's exit until Zinédine Zidane returned to inspire France to a 1–0 win at Landsdowne Road, ultimately ending the hopes of the Irish. Domenech had to force Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane, members of France's "golden generation," out of international retirement to aid the national team to eventually qualify. The general consensus in France, however, was that France was too dated a side to win the 2006 FIFA World Cup, despite the return of their cherished talisman, Zidane.

Squad selection

A keen amateur dramatist and astrologer, Domenech has admitted to distrusting Scorpio, such as Robert Pirès. This led to the choosing of Vikash Dhorasoo who played an important part...
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