Ex-Nice boss Franck Haise takes charge of Rennes

Ligue 1 side Rennes hired Franck Haise as its new coach on Wednesday following Habib Beye's exit.

Haise has been given a contract until 2027, the French club said in a statement.

Haise's immediate task is to guide sixth-place Rennes into fourth spot and a place in the Champions League qualifying rounds. Rennes is six points behind fourth-place Marseille with 12 games left.

Haise was coach of Nice at the start of the season but was fired in December following a poor run of form and tensions with fans. His assistants at Nice, Johann Ramare and Lilian Nalis, are joining him at Rennes, which beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 last Friday.

The 54-year-old Haise returns to Rennes, where he started his coaching career in charge of the youth academy from 2006-12.

Haise enjoyed a good spell as coach of Lens from 2020-24, guiding the team to a second-place finish behind star-studded PSG in 2023 and qualifying the northern club for the Champions League. Lens finished only one point behind PSG that season and Haise was praised for his shrewd tactical ability.

Unwinding with wine

Haise is a keen wine collector and earned the nickname "The Oenologist" from his friends. He once described how his devotion to all things wine was his way of escaping the pressures of top-level management.

"When I read the French review of wines, when I watch a program on television about wine or when I am taking part in a tasting, these are the rare moments I'm not thinking about football," Haise said in an interview with Ouest-France newspaper in 2023. "When I'm in the universe of wine, my mind is not cluttered with other things. It's my escape."

Next up for Rennes is a trip Sunday to Auxerre.

That should suit Haise just fine, since it is nestled in the northern part of Burgundy wine region which produces the famed Chablis white wine.

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