Jean-Pierre Papin

Considered to be one of the best centre-forwards of his generation, he won the Ballon d'Or in 1991.

Jean-Pierre Papin

Papin in 2013
Personal information
Full name	Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin
Date of birth	(1963-11-05) 5 November 1963 (age 60)
Place of birth	Boulogne-sur-Mer, France
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Marseille (technical advisor)
Youth career
1969–1978	Jeumont
1978–1980	Trith-Saint-Léger
1980–1981	Valenciennes
1981–1984	INF Vichy
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1984	INF Vichy	49	(13)
1984–1985	Valenciennes	33	(15)
1985–1986	Club Brugge	33	(21)
1986–1992	Marseille	214	(134)
1992–1994	AC Milan	40	(18)
1994–1996	Bayern Munich	27	(3)
1996–1998	Bordeaux	55	(22)
1998–1999	Guingamp	10	(3)
1999–2001	JS Saint-Pierroise	27	(13)
2001–2004	US Lège-Cap-Ferret	57	(24)
Total		545	(266)
International career
1985–1986	France U21	4	(3)
1986–1995	France	54	(30)
Managerial career
2004–2006	Arcachon
2006–2007	Strasbourg
2007–2008	Lens
2009–2010	Châteauroux
2014–2015	Arcachon
2020–2022	C'Chartres
Medal record Men's football Representing  France FIFA World Cup 1986
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

He was included in the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest living footballers, published in 2004 for the centenary of the FIFA, signed by Pelé. He was named one of the best European footballers on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the UEFA in 2004. He is famous in particular for his first-time strikes from distance, his overhead kicks, and his volleys, which are known as Papinades. The nickname of JPP is attributed to him by supporters and journalists.

Trained at Jeumont, he signed his first professional contract in 1984 at Valenciennes. Recruited by Brugge, he had an excellent season, winning the Belgian Cup and being selected for the French team for the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Recruited by Marseille, he experienced the peak of his career and won with Marseille, the Ligue 1 in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992, the Coupe de France in 1989 and reached the final of the UEFA Champions League in 1991. In 1992, he was transferred the highest in the history of football, when he left Olympique de Marseille for AC Milan with which he scored in 1994, the Serie A and the UEFA Champions League. He joined Bayern Munich, with which he won the Europa League in 1996. He returned to France, to Bordeaux, where he was a finalist in the Coupe de la ligue in 1997 and 1998 and then ended his professional career at Guingamp.

Capped 54 times and captain of the France team 11 times, Jean-Pierre Papin won the bronze medal at the 1986 World Cup and competed in Euro 1992. Injuries and the emergence of the Zinedine Zidane generation moved away from the selection and his international career ended in the mid-1990s. He was not retained in the French selections which reached the semi-finals of Euro 1996 and won the 1998 World Cup.

In 1996, after their eight-month-old daughter was shown to have serious cerebral lesions, Jean-Pierre and his wife set up an association "Neuf de Coeur" (Nine of Hearts; Papin's shirt number was 9) to help others in that situation and, particularly, to find and apply methods to mentally and physically educate such children.

Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin was born on 5 November 1963 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, the son of professional footballer Guy Papin. After his parents divorced, he moved to live with his grandmother in Germont, a French city located near the Belgian border.

Valenciennes

At age 15, Papin started his professional career with Valenciennes, in Northern France, before moving to Club Brugge in Belgium.

Brugge

Papin had a very successful first season at Club Brugge, scoring 32 goals in 43 games. Although he only played one season for Club Brugge, he was elected as its greatest ever foreign player by the supporters in 2008.

Marseille

 

During Papin's hugely successful spell at Marseille, with the Frenchman as striker and skipper Marseille won four French league championships in a row (1989–1992), a league and cup double in 1989 and reached the final of the European Cup in 1991, losing to Red Star Belgrade after on penalties.

During this period, Papin scored 181 goals in 279 games and was the league's top scorer for five consecutive seasons (from 1988 to 1992). While at Marseille he won the Ballon d'Or, awarded to Europe's top footballer, in 1991.

AC Milan

In July 1992, Papin joined Italian giants AC Milan for a world record fee of £10 million, and was the first high-profile French player to join the Italian league since Michel Platini. However, he never established himself as a regular first team member with the rossoneri due to injuries and adaptation problems. As a foreign player in the Pre-Bosman rule era, Papin also suffered from the three-foreigner rule that made him compete for playing time with other foreign players.^{[clarification needed][citation needed]}

He entered as a substitute during the 1993 Champions League final in which Milan lost to his former club, Marseille. He won the Champions League in the next year, but did not play in the final. Nevertheless, Papin has kept good memories of his spell in Italy and frequently cites former Milan managers Fabio Capello and Arrigo Sacchi as his models when coaching is concerned.^{[citation needed]}

Bayern Munich

In 1994, he was transferred to Bayern Munich for £2.1 million, but his first season was once again plagued by injuries. In his second season in Germany he was part of the side that won the UEFA Cup against Bordeaux, a club that Papin would join the following season.^{[citation needed]} He was twice linked with clubs in England later in his playing career. First, in March 1994, he was a transfer target for Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. Towards the end of his spell with Bordeaux in 1998, he was a target for ambitious Fulham, then a Division Two (third tier) side, and even expressed his desire to sign for the club. However, neither transfer ever happened and Papin finished his career without having spent any time in England.

Bordeaux

With Bordeaux, he lost the 1997 Coupe de la Ligue final against Strasbourg and lost the 1998 Coupe de la Ligue final.

Guingamp

Papin's professional career ended in 1998 with Second Division side Guingamp.

Later career

Papin finished his career as a player in the amateur club US Cap-Ferret between 2001 and 2004. Then, after five years of managing, he played in another amateur club, AS Facture-Biganos Boïen.

 

Papin was selected for the first time in the French team during the Toulon Tournament in 1985 in Marseille with the number 14, alongside Pascal Baills, Stéphane Paille, Gérald Passi, Franck Sauzée, Vincent Cobos and Jean-Christophe Thomas. The France team won the Toulon Tournament and successively defeated Spain (Jon Andoni Goikoetxea), Romania (Gheorghe Popescu), Ivory Coast (Joël Tiéhi) and England (Martin Allen). Papin finished as the tournament's top scorer and it was during the match against Spain that Papin scored his first official goal at the Stade Vélodrome.

Papin earned his first cap in a friendly match against Northern Ireland in February 1986 and appeared at the 1986 World Cup. He scored twice in four games: first during France opening game against Canada (1–0) and then during France's victory against Belgium (4–2), helping France finish third.

He did not participate in the 1990 World Cup because of failures during the qualifiers but during the qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 1992 he finished second top scorer in the Qualifiers of the 1992 European Football Championship with nine goals behind Darko Pančev and the France team is the only one to win all its playoff matches, a first in Europe and this in a very strong group with two quarter-finalists of the previous World Cup, Spain and Czechoslovakia. Papin who suffers from the aftermath of an ankle injury cannot prevent France from failing in the first round, despite scoring two goals in three games

The French football team, trained by Gérard Houllier, played in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers but got off to a bad start (2–0 defeat in Bulgaria), but a series of 6 wins against Austria (twice), Finland (twice), Sweden and Israel put them back at the top of the group and in a very favorable position for qualification with three rounds to go. The french team, undermined by internal quarrels (Marseille-Paris rivalry), however collapsed in the final sprint by conceding a draw in Sweden (1–1 on a defensive error three minutes from the end) and during the two last games played at home, where they only had to beat Israel or not lose against Bulgaria, to score the ticket for the United States. The Blues lost against the weakest team in the group, Israel (2–3 on a goal by Atar 30 seconds from the end of the match), then against Bulgaria (1–2 on a goal by Emil Kostadinov two seconds the end of regulation time), this goal depriving France of participation in the World Cup. The two qualifiers of this group 6, Sweden and Bulgaria, would reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in July 1994.

Papin initially said goodbye to the Blues of which he was the captain after the elimination in qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, before being convinced by Aimé Jacquet to return. He scored his last goal in selection at Trebizond in Turkey (match relocated because of troubles in Azerbaijan) against Azerbaijan (2–0) at the end of 1994. Papin played his last international match against the Netherlands in January 1995, before injuries and the emergence of the Zinédine Zidane generation permanently removed him from the selection.

Papin has been described as "a fast and lethal striker, who made goal scoring his signature for club and country" and a player who could score in a variety of situation, "from neat, chipped finishes, low drives into the corner, towering headers and, in particular, thumping volleys."

During his career, the term Papinade was used to describe powerful volleys from difficult angles.

In May 2006, Papin took over from Jacky Duguépéroux as the new coach of Strasbourg, who were relegated to the Second Division. He had previously been coaching Arcachon, an amateur team, and helped them to be promoted from CFA 2 to CFA.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006–07, he guided Strasbourg back to Ligue 1 with a third-placed finish but came under pressure shortly after the end of the season when internal conflicts at the club surfaced in the press. Several players, including '05 league cup final hero Jean-Christophe Devaux, also openly criticized Papin's methods.^{[citation needed]}

Initially confirmed as manager for the 2007–08 season, he was forced to resign a week later after it was revealed that he had interviewed for the vacant managerial job at Lens only hours after his confirmation at Strasbourg. He was replaced by Jean-Marc Furlan, former manager of Troyes, while Lens selected Guy Roux as their new manager. Ironically, Papin eventually became the manager of Lens after the club lost at Strasbourg, as Roux resigned only five games into the 2007–08 season. In the midst of the season, Lens and Papin were fighting to avoid relegation to the Second Division. Lens was also eliminated in the first round of both the UEFA cup and the Coupe de France by, respectively, FC Copenhagen (1–1; 1–2) and Second Division side Chamois Niortais (0–1, at home).^{[citation needed]}

On 29 December 2009, Châteauroux hired the coach to replace Dominique Bijotat. He left his position in May 2010 and was replaced by Didier Tholot.

For the 2014–15 season, Papin once again took the managerial position at FC Bassin d'Archachon in Championnat de France Amateur 2.

On 2 June 2020, Papin was announced as the new manager of Championnat National 2 side C'Chartres.

He left his position in October 2022 to go back to Marseille as a technical advisor.

Papin was also iconic in French pop culture because of his caricature in the satirical TV puppet show Les Guignols de l'Info. At first, Papin was depicted as a rather dumb football player (a common stereotype in France), his only obsession being the many different ways to score goals. When Papin experienced difficulties in Italy, the coverage became more sympathetic, especially with the infamous Reviens JPP! song where even God Himself would urge Papin to come back to his home country, because "France needs you!".^{[citation needed]}

After his daughter, Emily, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant, Papin started running the Neuf de cœur (Nine of Hearts) foundation, which provides support to families affected by the neurological disorder.

Since 2011, he has participated in the Amélie evenings, organized by Amélie Mauresmo for the benefit of the Institut Curie on the theme play with the artists which happens at each opening of the Open GDF Suez at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in Paris.

Since 2013, he has been with Youri Djorkaeff, Sylvain Wiltord and Valdo Filho, one of the ambassadors of Footgolf.

Club