Pascal Vaudequin

Pascal Vaudequin (born 22 September 1966 in Paris) is a former French footballer who spent the most part of his career playing in the League of Ireland after meeting his wife there and subsequently, he fell in love with her and the north-western region. He is currently working with the Irish Football Association associations.

Career

Early Career and Derry City

Vaudequin began playing football as a young boy after being inspired by the Dutch national football team and Johann Cruijff during the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He began his career with INF Vichy the National Football Academy before going to Alencons with Philippe Troussier. In 1985 he joined USL Dunkerque before moving to Ireland in the Summer of 1987 to sign for Derry City. He made his League of Ireland debut for the Candystripes on 13 September against Bray Wanderers. Vaudequin was pivotal in the hugely successful treble winning Derry City team of 1989. He later left in 1991, returning to France to play for Orléans Rodez before re-signing for Derry in 1993 where he stayed for a further three seasons. During his two spells at Derry he won 1 League of Ireland title, 2 FAI Cups and 4 League Cups in what proved to be the Candystripes' most successful era. Whilst playing for Derry, Vaudequin was referred to as "Paddy Quinn" or "Paddy Vandequin" by supporters, who found difficulty in pronouncing his name.^[1]

Post-Derry City

Vaudequin left Derry City in 1997 and signed with the relatively successful Shelbourne. During his short spell with the Dublin side, he won an FAI Cup winners medal in 1997. Pascal then signed for Finn Harps F.C. getting to another FAI Cup final in 1999. He then moved to Bohemians, making his debut against Sligo Rovers in January 2000. However, this move was short-lived and Vaudequin promptly signed for Shamrock Rovers F.C. spending the 2000–01 and the 2001/02 seasons with them.

Managerial and Coaching

After holding various coaching positions around Ireland, Vaudequin was determined to become an official coach and returned home to France, where he completed his UEFA Pro Licence. Since gaining the licence, Vaudequin has been linked with a number of top-flight Irish jobs.

Return to the North-West

Upon retirement, Vaudequin returned to the North-West and assumed the role of assistant manager at Finn Harps After a period as assistant manager at Finn Harps F.C., Vaudequin began coaching at Institute. He was later offered the role of manager of Institute F.C. in January 2005 after the departure of Paul Hegarty. He accepted this offer and signed a number of promising French players, but his managerial reign lasted a mere ten months.^[2] After leaving the Riverside club, he decided to aid youth development and volunteered as a youth coach for Derry based Trojans F.C. Vaudequin had also been linked with the vacant post at Finn Harps F.C. after Anthony Gorman left the club at the end of the 2006 league campaign. However, he did not take the job and his former team-mate, Paul Hegarty, was soon appointed manager. In March 2007, Vaudequin was also strongly linked with the job of Sligo Rovers F.C.^{[3] [4]}

Irish Football Association

He is currently coaching for the Irish Football Association.Since 2007 he was involved as a County Coach Performance (u12- u15) until 2013. Pascal was involved with the N-Ireland u17 International Coaching staff as an assistant manager until June 2011.

In February 2014 until July 2016 he was involved as an Elite Performance coach u14-u16 also working with the u19 International Squad as an assistant Manager.

In August 2016 Pascal started a new job as Talent ID Performance Manager. Pascal is also involve in coaching Education as a Mentor Educator / Assessor UEFA licenses B and Youth Certificate

Honours

Derry City F.C.

• League of Ireland – 1
• FAI Cup – 2
• League of Ireland Cup – 4

Shelbourne F.C.

• FAI Cup – 1

Controversy

Vaudequin is fondly remembered for his solid performances in a Derry shirt, however, on many occasions he was subject to abuse from opposing fans. The most intolerable abuse he suffered was from the Coleraine F.C. fans, who consider Derry City a rival team. He was labelled "The Frog" in reference to his nationality. However, he maintained his nerve and played through the criticism. Sometimes, if he was ever taking a throw-in close to the opposing fans who were verbally abusing him, he would even coolly turn his head to them back over either shoulder and retort with a dauntlessly resolute grin and a mocking jibe of "rosbif" before launching a dangerous throw into the box. (Coleraine has a significant population descended from Anglo planter stock.) Vaudequin's team mates have applauded his integrity and he was quoted as being "a gentleman, both on and off the pitch" by the Derry Journal. He was also the centre of a racial abuse controversy as manager of Institute, as Ballymena United F.C. fans were believed to direct abuse toward the French man.^[5]

References