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Diacre in her playing days with international coach Elisabeth Loisel. EMPICS Sport
Monday Night Football

Diacre feeling 'serene', focused as she becomes first female to coach in men's football

Diacre takes her Clermont side on the road for the first time tonight.

CORINNE DIACRE SAYS she is feeling calm ahead of her historic debut as the coach of French side Clermont tonight.

Kick-off will mark Diacre as the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in a major European country and speaking this morning she was taking the day in her stride.

“There is serenity,” she said this morning in a video press conference on the club’s website.

“There will be some excitement but I’m trying not to get polluted by that,” added Diacre on the day she turned 40.

“I’m trying to maintain my focus as much as possible and to stay as much in the shadows as possible because what interests me is that my players take the limelight, not me.”

The former assistant coach to the French women’s national team said she wants to deflect the media attention away from her as quickly as possible.

“I think all this interest is over the top with regards to my presence, what I’d like is for us to concentrate on Clermont,” she added.

Diacre was hired after Clermont’s original choice, another woman, Portuguese Helena Costa, resigned abruptly the day before taking charge of the team.

Costa had been appointed in May amongst much fanfare but never actually took charge of a training session as she walked away after complaining that the club was signing players without consulting her.

Unbowed by that setback, president Claude Michy nonetheless decided to hire another woman in Diacre.

- © AFP, 2014

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