Valérien Ismaël, new coach of Le Havre
The French team, bottom of Ligue 1, announced the signing of its new coach, who is a classic in football.
By Pedro López
November 12, 2026 at 10:13 PM
According to Mundodeportivo.
Why it matters
The outcome has implications for form, confidence, and the next fixtures on the calendar.
Key points
- Valérien Ismaël, new coach of Le Havre.
- The French team, bottom of Ligue 1, announced the signing of its new coach, who is a classic in football.
- Official: A classic to achieve a feat in Le Havre.
The 1-5 defeat in October against PSG in Ligue 1 unleashed a huge crisis in all levels of bottom-placed Le Havre. One of the first to fall was Didier Digard, the coach. As of this Thursday he already has a replacement: a classic like Valérien Ismaël, a true globetrotter first as a player and then as a coach. This was announced by Le Havre.
Ismaël, 48, had a distinguished career as a defender, playing for teams such as Strasbourg, Roma, Metz, Newcastle and Werder Bremen. He also stood out in English football, playing for West Bromwich and Crystal Palace. His coaching career began in 2016 with Strasbourg's under-21 team, and then managed the eastern French club's first team in 2018. In 2020, Barnsley from the English Championship signed him as coach, achieving a great season with the club. This earned him a move to the German club Wolfsburg, where his time was less successful. In 2021 he managed the Turkish team Besiktas and in 2023 the Saudi team Al-Ahli.
Ismaël's objective at Le Havre will be to remove the team from the last position in Ligue 1 and achieve permanence in the category. The first game that the French coach will coach will be on October 29 against Monaco, also as a visitor.
The choice of Ismaël was a bit surprising, since he is a coach whose career has developed almost entirely outside of France, although his time as a player was brilliant in Ligue 1.
Le Havre is a historic French football club, although in recent years it has been quite far from the elite. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest club in France and the second oldest in Europe. Their greatest success was winning Ligue 1 in 1985. Currently the team plays in Ligue 1, but occupies the last position in the table.
Ismaël's arrival at the club took place in the midst of a great institutional crisis, since the team has had a bad start to the season and is in the last position of the table. This led to a crisis of confidence being unleashed in the club's board, so it is expected that the election of a coach with Ismaël's career will help calm the waters in the club and, above all, for the players to regain confidence to get the team out of the bottom of the table.
What's next
Attention now turns to the next fixture, possible lineup changes, and how coaches use this result in their preparation.