1. Bruno Jean Cornil Metsu was a French footballer and football manager.
37 Facts About Bruno Metsu
1. 2.
Bruno Metsu coached Senegal to the quarter-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, during which his team defeated defending champions France in the opening match of the tournament.
3.
Bruno Metsu had a three-year spell as a youth player in Belgium with Anderlecht.
4.
Bruno Metsu had his heyday at Valenciennes between 1975 and 1979, scoring his highest number of club goals, 14, while playing alongside top players such as Didier Six and Roger Milla.
5.
Bruno Metsu spent over a decade as the manager of five different clubs in France before his first foray overseas as a football manager in the year 2000.
6.
Bruno Metsu was appointed the manager of the Division 1 club Lille at the age of 38 on 1 July 1992.
7.
Bruno Metsu lasted a year there, then had spells at Sedan and Valence before, he applied successfully to become the manager of the Guinea national football team.
8.
The feeling was mutual and Bruno Metsu left the Guinea post after less than one year on the job to become the manager of the Senegal national football team in the year 2000.
9.
Bruno Metsu immediately began fostering the esprit de corps that would fuel his Senegal side, recalling several players whom the Senegalese Football Federation did not want in the national team because of perceived indiscipline.
10.
Bruno Metsu did not manage the team with an iron fist.
11.
Bruno Metsu's relaxed but inspiring coaching style quickly whipped his team into shape to the admiration of both fans and officials.
12.
Bruno Metsu outstandingly led Senegal to the championship final of the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations held in Mali.
13.
Bruno Metsu guided Senegal to seal a spot in the 2002 World Cup finals for the first time in its history.
14.
Bruno Metsu's team drew their remaining Group A matches with Denmark and Uruguay.
15.
Some Senegalese officials, football players and fans opined that Senegal would have progressed from the quarterfinals had Bruno Metsu used the right men from the start of the Senegal-Turkey match and made substitutions during that match.
16.
Bruno Metsu changed her name to Viviane Dieye Metsu after the marriage.
17.
Bruno Metsu was mostly described in Senegal as a coach who inculcated the culture of courage and relentlessness in the Lions of Teranga, which subsequently influenced the junior ranks and the nation's club sides.
18.
Bruno Metsu brought a new spirit that inspired the nation's football and aroused young talent to see themselves as giants anywhere.
19.
Bruno Metsu left his post as the manager of the Senegal national team in 2002, at the height of differences with the country's football officials.
20.
Bruno Metsu was eventually forced to pay a fine for breach of contract.
21.
In 2005, Bruno Metsu coached his new club to the Qatar Stars League title in his first season, with a 14-point winning margin over the second-placed Al Rayyan SC.
22.
Bruno Metsu maintains that the Crown Prince of Qatar, who was the chairman of Qatar's National Olympic Committee, orchestrated the moves due to his unhappiness at his club, Al-Sadd SC, being dethroned as the Qatar Stars League champions by Al-Gharafa.
23.
Bruno Metsu was handed a one-month contract by the club president Mansour Al-Bilawi to help the club qualify for the playoff.
24.
Bruno Metsu coached the club to finish in third position in the league table.
25.
Bruno Metsu returned to the UAE as the national team's manager in 2006, coaching his side to victory in the 18th Arabian Gulf Cup in front of a packed stadium in Abu Dhabi on 30 January 2007.
26.
On 25 September 2008, Bruno Metsu returned to Qatar, accepting a job as manager of the Qatar national team.
27.
Bruno Metsu was appointed the manager of Al-Gharafa in March 2011 on a three-year contract, returning to the club that he had guided to win the Qatar Stars League in 2005.
28.
Bruno Metsu's club won the 2011 Qatar Crown Prince Cup in April 2011.
29.
Bruno Metsu was contacted by the Senegalese Football Federation in February 2012 about his possible return to the manager post of the Senegal national football team.
30.
Bruno Metsu was linked to the head coach job of the Iranian side Persepolis in June 2012 but it was eventually filled by Manuel Jose.
31.
On 12 July 2012, Bruno Metsu was named as the new Al Wasl FC head coach, replacing Diego Maradona who had been sacked two days earlier.
32.
In October 2012, three months after replacing Diego Maradona at Al Wasl FC, Bruno Metsu was diagnosed with primary colon cancer, with the cancer already having metastasised to his lungs and liver.
33.
Bruno Metsu spent the last few months of his life combatting the cancer in his native commune of Coudekerque-Village in northern France.
34.
Bruno Metsu succumbed to the cancer and died on 15 October 2013 at Clinique des Flandres in Coudekerque-Branche.
35.
Bruno Metsu was survived by his wife, Viviane Dieye Metsu, and their three children, as well as a son by his first wife.
36.
On 21 October 2013, Bruno Metsu was given an Islamic funeral in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
37.
Bruno Metsu was later buried in the Muslim cemetery of Yoff.