Valérien Ismaël

Valérien Alexandre Ismaël (born 28 September 1975) is a French professional football coach and a former professional player who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club Watford.

During his playing career, Ismaël played for Racing Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, RC Lens, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich, and Hannover 96.

As a player, he won the Coupe de France, the Coupe de la Ligue twice, the Bundesliga twice, as well as the DFB-Pokal on two occasions.

Following his retirement, he moved into management, first as a reserve coach for a number of clubs before moving into senior management at 1. FC Nürnberg, then with VfL Wolfsburg before a notable spell with LASK of the Austrian Bundesliga and spells with Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion of the English Championship.

Ismaël was born to a Guadeloupean father and an Alsatian mother, growing up in Strasbourg on the border with Germany.

Ismaël's grandfather is German.

Ismaël made his debut for Strasbourg against Cannes on 15 January 1994.

He went on to make 77 league appearances in his first spell with the club.

Additionally, he appeared in five UEFA Cup matches, scoring once.

Ismaël was signed by Crystal Palace for £2.75 million from Strasbourg in January 1998, making him the most expensive player in the club's history.

Despite this, he only played 13 games for the London club and was only there for ten months from January to October 1998, before moving back to his native France to sign for Lens in October 1998.

Ismaël's time at Lens saw him regain his form after his brief and expensive spell in England.

He played 83 times, scoring five goals.

He also had a short loan spell at his old club Strasbourg during the 2000–01 Division 1 season but could not help them avoid relegation.

He did however play for Strasbourg in the 2001 Coupe de France Final, in which they beat Amiens on penalties.

He returned to Lens for the 2001–02 Division 1 season where he was in particularly good form, playing 33 times and scoring on four occasions.

However, he was sold back to Strasbourg for the following season following their promotion back to the top tier.

On moving back to his former club for a third spell, Ismaël was appointed captain.

Ismaël was loaned to Werder Bremen in 2003 where he appeared 32 times, scoring four goals.

Bremen went on to win the German double in his first season at the club.

He was sold to Werder prior to the following season, where once again he appeared 32 times, scoring four goals.

However, Werder could only finish third.

He made seven appearances in the UEFA Champions League as well, scoring twice.

Ismaël arrived at Bayern Munich in July 2005.

He received a red card on his debut for the club, but finished the season winning the German league and cup double for the second time in his career.

However, he only featured once in the 2006–07 campaign for the club due to his long term injury and was eventually released to join Hannover 96 in January 2008.

He made 31 league appearances for Bayern without scoring and eight Champions league appearances, scoring once against A.C. Milan in a 4–1 loss.

Ismaël was brought to the club in order to strengthen the struggling defence and to provide leadership for his new teammates.

His first game for Hannover was against his previous club, Bayern, playing well for 45 minutes and helping his team maintain a 0–0.

After he was substituted with a minor injury, Hannover conceded three goals in the second half.

After overcoming the injury, he became a key player for the team.

Due to further injuries and a bad prognosis for recovery he retired on 5 October 2009.

In total he made 18 appearances for Hannover.

Ismaël had appearances for French under-18 and under-21 teams.

When he was not called up to the senior team, he wanted to represent Germany.

However, he was rejected by the German Football Association (DFB) because there was not enough connection to Germany.

Answering questions of the German sports magazine Kicker, Ismael said the report that was published by the German tabloid Bild, the following: "That's not quite true. I am French, and I still hope for my chance to play for France. I'm feeling fine in Germany, but I do not want to volunteer. Only if Klinsmann wants me, then we would have to talk about it."

He led the club to a respectable 13th position and attracted interest from Europe because of his composed performances in defence.

In his last spell at Strasbourg he made 26 appearances and scored twice.

He appeared for his home club a total of 167 times in all competitions and netted seven goals.