Reynald Pedros


Reynald Pedros is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

Club career

Pedros was born in Orléans, Loiret and is of Spanish descent. 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 Ligue 1 title with Nantes in 1995. The following year he reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

International career

Pedros represented 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.
Before UEFA Euro 1996, he was considered one of the best French midfielders, on par with Zinedine Zidane.
However, the semi-final against the Czech Republic came to a draw. The match went to extra time and into 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.
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.

Managerial career

On 2 June 2017, Pedros took over as head coach of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, leading 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.

Career statistics

International goals

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetitionRef.
16 September 1995Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France4–010–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
224 January 1996Parc des Princes, Paris, France3–23–2Friendly
329 May 1996Stade de la Meinau, Strasbourg, France2–02–0Friendly
49 October 1996Parc des Princes, Paris, France2–04–0Friendly