Academy director between 2010 and 2014, Manuel Pires returns to the Nice five years on, taking over from Alain Wathelet. He returns to the OGC Nice that he joined for the first time in 2007, as coach of the U16 and then U17s, firstly, before becoming Academy director and coach of the reserves from 2010.

Under his leadership, the U17s (Gautier Lloris’ generation) finished top of their group, the U19s won the club’s first-ever Coupe Gambardella in 2012, and numerous professionals emerged from the Academy, such as Amavi, Koziello, Cardinale, Bosetti and Rougeaux. When he left Le Gym, Manu became assistant coach at Red Star (2014-17); assistant coach and then head coach at Laval (2017-18) and then Academy director at AS Monaco (2018-19).

Manu Pires will also be head coach of Nice’s reserve team in the N3 division with Cédric Varrault, named assistant coach this summer.

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