Montpellier coach Michel Der Zakarian gets fired after nightmarish start to French league season

Coach Michel Der Zakarian was fired by French club Montpellier after his team was thrashed 5-0 at home by Marseille for a sixth loss in eight matches this season.

The result left the 2012 French champions in last place, having already conceded 26 goals in a season marking the club’s 50th anniversary.

“Tonight I felt compelled to end our collaboration,” Montpellier president Laurent Nicollin, visibly moved, said late Sunday after the match.

In comments to broadcaster DAZN, he added: “We talked in the dressing room after the game. I told him it was over tonight. I also went to see the players to let them know that thanks to their excellent job they had fired the coach and that they need to take their responsibilities on Sunday against Toulouse.”

Der Zakarian — a former Armenia international known as “Der Zak” in the Montpellier region — is a familiar and beloved figure at the family soccer club based in southern France.

As a player, the 61-year-old former defender spent nearly a decade at Montpellier, getting the captain’s armband when Laurent Blanc left for Napoli and leading the club to victory in the League Cup in 1992. After he retired, Der Zakarian joined Montpellier’s technical staff and learned his trade as a coach with the reserve teams. Disappointed not to get the top coaching job, Der Zakarian left for Nantes in 2006.

He finally was appointed Montpellier coach in 2017. His first tenure lasted four seasons, leading his players to a sixth-place finish while building a team that was renowned for its defensive qualities.

With the club struggling. Der Zakarian returned in 2023 with the same gritty philosophy and managed to spark a revival.

Montpellier won the French league title once, in 2012, when it upset Paris Saint-Germain. The club also won the second division title in 1987 and the French Cup in 1990 with a team featuring the likes of Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc and Julio Cesar.

But Montpellier’s ambitions this season have been significantly hampered by the significant drop in television rights revenues, preventing the club from securing the reinforcements it planned.

“We absolutely need to win against Toulouse,” Nicollin said, adding that firing Der Zakarian was “not a magic solution, but the easiest way to re-boost everybody.”

Nicollin said he has not found a replacement for Der Zakarian yet, but that he will be looking for someone willing to “get his hands dirty and getting a struggling team, it’s never easy.”

Marseille’s win snapped a two-match winless streak heading into Sunday’s home game against bitter rival PSG at Stade Velodrome. PSG tops the league on goal difference ahead of Monaco, with both sides unbeaten and on 20 points from eight rounds.