Pierre Sage appointed as RC Lens head coach
Racing Club de Lens have appointed former OL boss Pierre Sage as coach for the 2025-2026 season-, following the departure of Will Still this summer.
RC Lens have today announced the appointment of Pierre Sage as head coach of the club, to lead the Sang & Or into the 2025-2026 season. This followed the announced the departure of Will Still, who has moved to English side Southampton.
Sage began coaching in the Olympique Lyonnais academy, before joining Paris-based side Red Star as assistant manager to Habib Beye from 2021-2023. The Frenchman then returned to Lyon as the club's academy boss, before becoming interim boss in the middle of the 2023-2024 season.
Habemus πππππam. π¨ pic.twitter.com/1q1ZvgySPC
β Racing Club de Lens (@RCLens) June 2, 2025
OL then embarked on an impressive turnaround which saw Les Gones go from relegation battlers to qualify for the UEFA Europa League within five months. Sage then oversaw the start of Lyon's campaign this season, but departed the club in January. The Frenchman had been looking for his next coaching job.
Lens finished eighth in Ligue 1 McDonald's last season under Will Still, five points off Strasbourg - who qualified for the UEFA Conference League. Still had left the club over personal family reasons, after spending the last three seasons away from home in England.
Speaking after Sage's appointment, Sporting Director Jean-Louis Leca evoked that the club saw the veteran manager as a key building block for the future, saying, βThe arrival of Pierre Sage marks the first part of the sporting project that we wish to build for the years to come. I am very happy to begin this collaboration alongside him. From the outset, we were convinced by his vision of his play, his methodology and his ability to unite around a clear and ambitious project. Pierre embodies an approach to football based on human-centered management... The qualities that define him are fully in line with the identity of Racing Club de Lens."
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