Jean-Michel Larqué

Jean-Michel Larqué (born 8 September 1947) is a French former professional footballer, and now a sports journalist. He has also been player-coach of RC Paris, his only experience as head-coach. Larqué was born in Bizanos, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. As a player, Larqué played as a midfielder, and was one of the most important players for AS Saint-Étienne in the 1960s and 70s where he won all his titles.

He finished his playing career in Paris with Paris Saint-Germain and RC Paris. He holds the joint–record for most Ligue 1 titles won (seven), along with his Saint-Étienne teammate Hervé Revelli, as well as Thiago Silva and Marco Verratti of Paris Saint–Germain, and Grégory Coupet, Juninho, and Sidney Govou of Lyon. After having retired as a player, he became a football journalist: redactor for Onze Mondial magazine, but also on the radio Radio Monte Carlo with his programme, Larqué foot and on TV where he is a commentator.

Between 1980 and 1984 he commented football matches on Antenne 2 and between 1985 and 2005 on TF1 with Thierry Roland. With the departure of Thierry Roland for M6, TF1 chose Thierry Gilardi (died on 25 March 2008) of Canal+ to comment with Larqué. His style is notable for his constant repetition of the same phrase. In 1983, he also created training schools for young footballers from 7 to 19 where came Florent Malouda, Bruno Cheyrou, Benoït Cheyrou and Fabrice Fernandes.

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