Reynald Pedros

Reynald Michel Sebastian Pedros (born 10 October 1971) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He recently managed the Morocco women's national team.

Reynald Pedros

Pedros as manager of Lyon Women in 2019
Personal information
Full name	Reynald Michel Sebastian Pedros
Date of birth	(1971-10-10) 10 October 1971 (age 53)
Place of birth	Orléans, France
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1992	Nantes B	70	(11)
1990–1996	Nantes	152	(22)
1996	Marseille	23	(0)
1997	Parma	4	(0)
1997	Napoli	3	(0)
1997–1998	Lyon	15	(2)
1998–1999	Parma	1	(0)
1999–2000	Montpellier	3	(0)
1999–2000	Montpellier B	4	(1)
2000–2001	Toulouse	8	(1)
2001–2003	Bastia	15	(0)
2001–2002	Bastia B	7	(0)
2004–2005	Al-Khor
2005–2006	Sud Nivernais Imphy Decize
2006–2007	Bouchemaine La Baule-Escoublac
2007–2009	Baulmes	12	(1)
Total		317	(38)
International career
1993–1996	France	25	(4)
Managerial career
2008–2009	St-Jean-Ruelle
2009–2012	St-Pryvé St-Hilaire
2015–2017	Orléans (president adviser)
2017–2019	Lyon Women
2021–2023	Morocco Women
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Early life and club career

Reynald Michel Sebastian Pedros^[2] was born on 10 October 1971^[1] in Orléans, Loiret,^[3] and is of Portuguese^[4] and Spanish descent.^[5] He played as a left-footed attacking midfielder, formed in Nantes. He was part of the magic trio of FC Nantes with Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouédec. He won the Division 1 title with Nantes in 1995. The following year he reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.^{[citation needed]}

International career

Pedros played for the France national team. His career bears some similarity to David Ginola's – a mistake in the last 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match leading to French elimination, and subsequently being dropped from the national team.^{[citation needed]}

Before UEFA Euro 1996, he was considered one of the best French midfielders, on par with Zinedine Zidane,^{[citation needed]} and was selected for the tournament. France reached the semi-final to face the Czech Republic, and the two teams could not be separated over ninety minutes. The match thus went into extra time and subsequently a penalty shoot-out. After five successful penalties for each team, Pedros was to take the first of the penalties in sudden death. His shot was weak and slow, and was easily saved by the Czech goalkeeper, Petr Kouba. Miroslav Kadlec came to take the next penalty, scored it, and knocked France out of the tournament.^{[citation needed]}

Following this elimination, Pedros was made a pariah by the media and was greatly disliked by French fans. He attempted to make a comeback, in Ligue 2, but he was never able to come back to the top of his game.^{[citation needed]}

Managerial career

Pedros worked as president adviser at Orléans for two years.^[6] On 2 June 2017, he took over as head coach of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin.^[7] He led them to retain the Division 1 Féminine championship for the 12th and 13th time. He also succeeded in guiding the team to retaining the UEFA Women's Champions League for the 3rd and 4th time.^{[8][citation needed]}

In November 2020, Pedros became the coach of the Moroccan women's national team. This recruitment took place in the context of the effort made by the FRMF and its President Fouzi Lekjaa to develop women's football in Morocco, particularly mass football, with the aim of becoming a stronghold of women's football at continental and world level.^[9] His first tournament was the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, at which he guided Morocco to reach the final of the WAFCON for the first time in its only third appearance. This included a win on penalties win over African powerhouse Nigeria in the semi-finals, which was seen as a redemption for his penalty defeat in Euro 1996.^[10][11]

In August 2023, he took Morocco women's team to the knockout stages of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on their debut appearance at the tournament.^[12]

Career statistics

International goals

Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pedros goal.

List of international goals scored by Reynald Pedros

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	6 September 1995	Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France	Azerbaijan	4–0	10–0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying	[13]
2	24 January 1996	Parc des Princes, Paris, France	Portugal	3–2	3–2	Friendly	[14]
3	29 May 1996	Stade de la Meinau, Strasbourg, France	Finland	2–0	2–0	Friendly	[15]
4	9 October 1996	Parc des Princes, Paris, France	Turkey	2–0	4–0	Friendly	[16]

Honours

Manager

Lyon^{[citation needed]}

• Division 1 Féminine: 2017–18, 2018–19
• Coupe de France Féminine: 2018–19
• UEFA Women's Champions League: 2018–19,^[17] 2019–20^[18]

Morocco

• Women's Africa Cup of Nations runner-up: 2022^[11]