Michel Der Zakarian is back on the coast at La Baule, watching matches and waiting for the next call. Nantes dismissed him after only three Ligue 2 games in August, but the 63-year-old says his appetite for another job has not faded.
His third spell in charge of the Canaries lasted barely three weeks. Brought back in during the summer to lead the club’s push for an immediate return to Ligue 1, Der Zakarian oversaw three defeats before Grégory Poirier replaced him on 24 August.
The final match was a 5-2 home loss to Rodez on 22 August. Two days before his departure, Der Zakarian had suggested that another dismissal could mean retirement. He has now clarified that he remains available for work despite officially retiring in 2025 after completing his required years of employment.
“I am retired, but I still want to coach,” he said. “I expressed myself badly. I meant that I would go back into it, because I had already retired before returning to Nantes.”
Ready for another challenge
Der Zakarian signed his first professional contract at 18 and insists that, after more than four decades in football, he still has the drive to take on a final project.
He is prepared to join a club during the season if an opportunity arrives. “Of course I am ready. I am open to anything, even a job in the middle of the campaign. A board has to choose me, but I still have the passion and the desire to make one last bet work.”
His legal dispute with Nantes remains unresolved. The matter has already been heard by the LFP’s legal commission, while the former coach continues to study games from afar.
Relegation’s difficult aftermath
Der Zakarian accepts the disappointment of another abrupt exit but believes Nantes’ poor opening was shaped by the uncertainty inside a squad coming down from Ligue 1.
He argued that relegation had left players affected both mentally and financially, with reduced wages and several members of the group seeking moves that did not materialise.
“There are always difficulties after relegation,” he said. “Some players are scarred by it, others have financial concerns. Salaries go down and that can weigh heavily on people. Quite a few wanted to leave, but some did not get the contacts they expected.”
He stopped short of placing the responsibility solely on the players, saying the situation belonged to everyone at the club. Yet he felt the early results reflected a group whose focus had been disturbed by the summer.
Der Zakarian believes more time would have allowed him to alter the direction of the campaign. He said his staff had played a major part in preparing recruitment, with all but two of the subsequent arrivals among players they had identified.
“There is so much impatience now that coaches are often the ones who go,” he said.
No regret over a third Nantes return
The Armenian-born former defender had previously led Nantes to promotion in 2008 and 2013. He said the financial conditions and mood in those earlier squads were different, even though they too included players who had experienced relegation.
Despite the latest ending, he has no regret about answering Nantes’ call again.
“It is the club that developed me,” he said. “I had won promotion there twice and wanted to come back one final time.”
Der Zakarian also dismissed the idea that his age or coaching profile should rule him out as clubs increasingly turn towards younger managers. “Like the younger ones, I have my qualifications,” he said with a laugh. “More boards are choosing young coaches, but that does not frighten me.”
Asked about the Kita family’s near two-decade stewardship of Nantes, amid the possibility of a sale, he struck a measured note. The owners appointed and dismissed him three times, but he said their relationship had remained direct.
“Nothing about them bothers me,” Der Zakarian said. “We always spoke openly. There is an owner: he puts in the money and he decides. There have been good decisions and less good ones, with players and coaches alike. Even major coaches have had difficult periods.”
