As Dundee travel to Fir Park this weekend to take on Motherwell in the Ladbrokes Premiership, we take a look at a player who played for both clubs, French defender/ midfielder Éric Garcin.
Born in Avignon, France on December 6th 1965, Garcin started his football career at his local club when he came through the youth ranks of Olympique Avignonnais. He failed to break into the first team however and in 1985 moved to Toulouse where he made his Ligue 1 debut.
However after just one appearance for Toulouse, Éric moved to Nîmes Olympic in 1987 where he made 151 appearances over the next six years, winning promotion to the top flight in 1991 and being named Ligue 2 Player of the Year in 1996.
A three year spell between with Le Mans UC between 1993 and 1996 where he named Ligue 2 Player of the Year in his final year, was followed by a return to Toulouse and it was from ‘Les Violets’ that Garcin moved to Scotland in November 1997 when he joined Motherwell.
It was Alex McLeish who signed Garcin for The Steelmen on a Bosman transfer and he made his debut in a 4-3 defeat away at St Johnstone at the start of the month. Eric was excellent at dead ball situations, as well as a skilful player and he scored of a cracker of a free kick in a 6-2 win over Hibernian in January.
Unfortunately for Garcin, he was one of 17 players to be released by the new Finnish manager, Harri Kampman at the end of the season, who wanted to put his own stamp on the squad and he would move to east to Dens Park.
After winning promotion in 1998, Dundee manager Jocky Scott raided Motherwell in an attempt to bolster his squad for the SPL and Éric was one of the ‘Motherwell Four’ alongside Tommy Coyne, Willie Falconer and Shaun McSkimming.
Garcin’s first Dundee outing saw him impress at centre half alongside trialist Stephane Pounewatchy in a 1-0 pre-season friendly win over Kevin Keegan’s Fulham at Dens and in Southport three days later, Eric demonstrated those excellent dead ball situations when he scored a terrific free kick in a 5-0 win.
Hopes were high therefore for the French defender when he lined up in the opening game against Aberdeen wearing number 23 but the 2-0 defeat to The Dons at Dens was followed by a disastrous 1-0 loss to part-time Alloa in the League Cup seven days later.
Garcin then came off the bench in a 2-0 defeat at East End Park but failed to come off it when St Johnstone left Dens with a 1-0 win in front of the BSB-SKY TV cameras on a Sunday night meaning The Dee had started the inaugural SPL season with four defeats and no goals.
Garcin was recalled to the starting line up for the visit of Celtic on August 29th but limped off after just ten minutes with a groin strain. Despite his replacement Brian Grant also limping off with a thigh strain, Dundee kick started their season with a last minute Eddie Annand penalty equaliser but it would be the last time the Dundee support would see Garcin in a Dundee shirt.
In November Éric was released with the official line being that the injury-plagued defender had “failed to settle” but at the AGM later in the season, chief executive Peter Marr claimed that injury problems apart, he had been a disruptive influence amongst the other players.
Garcin returned to Le Mans and made seven appearances before the end of the season but injury forced him to hang up his boots and move into coaching.
In 2001 Garcin took up his first managerial post with Grenoble and has subsequently managed or coached with Stade de Reims, Lorient and Rouen in his native France and Shenzhen Ruby in China as well as working as assistant manager to the Chinese Woman’s National Team between 2015 and 2017, losing that post last November alongside manager Bruno Bini.
Appearances with Dundee:
League: 2 + 1 sub
League Cup: 1
Totals: 4
