Claude Puel: a legend returns to OGC Nice

There is an element of 'Back to the Future' at OGC Nice. Jean-Pierre Rivere and Maurice Cohen have come in as co-presidents in a bid to get the club back on-track, and they will now do so alongside another figure of Le Gym's past - and now their present, too - Claude Puel.

Two previous fourth-place finishes with Nice

Rivere said that Puel was good in "moments of difficulty" and so that makes the latter the man for the moment at Nice. The Riviera club have endured a difficult start to the campaign, far from the high standards that they have set in recent seasons, and far from the standards, in fact, that he set when he was last at the club.

At the end of his first season (2012/13), Nice earned a fourth-place finish, their highest league finish in 37 years, at the time. He then repeated that feat in his final season at Nice (2015/16), and in style, too, with the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa, Alassane Plea, and Valere Germain shining in that side.

Prior to that, he had already forged his reputation in L'Héxagone. Having started out at local rivals AS Monaco in the 1990s, described as, alongside Nice, one of his two most cherished clubs, he then moved to Lille in 2002. However, prior to his move to one of the other giants of French football, he won the Ligue 1 McDonald's title with the Principality club (1999/2000).

Claude Puel's first dayhttps://t.co/B1ebHlkXq0
— OGC Nice 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@ogcnice_eng) December 29, 2025

Silverware at Lille, with whom he would spend six seasons, and then at Lyon, where he would spend a further three (2008-2011), would prove harder to come by. And so Puel's first stint at Nice was crucial in rebuilding his own reputation, which he did before departing for England, where he would spend time at Southampton and then Leicester City.

He returned to his native France in 2019, but having arrived midway through the campaign, he would spend just one full season at Saint-Étienne before leaving after 17 Ligue 1 McDonald's games in the 2021/22 season. That was his last job, and so he returns to Le Gym after a spell of four years out in the wilderness.

Almost 1000 points in ligue 1 McDonald's

Prior to taking on the job, Puel had already managed 651 games in Ligue 1 McDonald's, accumulating 974 points in that time. The one he earned thanks to a 1-1 draw against Strasbourg on Saturday, a game that marked the return of a club legend at the Allianz Riviera, takes him to 975, and ever closer to that 1,000 mark.

Time, however, is of the essence if he is to reach that milestone, given that he has only signed a six-month contract with the club. "I have come for a mission and a difficult challenge. That is what motivates me," said Puel upon replacing Franck Haise at the end of last month. A final challenge in Ligue 1 McDonald's? Time will tell.

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