Guy Luzon (born 7 August 1975) is an Israeli football manager and former player who manages the Israel national under-21 team.

Club career

Guy Luzon was a graduate of the Maccabi Petah Tikva youth program, joining Maccabi Petah Tikva at the age of 10. Luzon started playing for the first team at the age of 18, making his debut against Beitar Tel Aviv in 1992. He played for Maccabi Petah Tikva for 3 years, until an injury caused him to retire at the age of 21 in 1996.

Managerial career

After Luzon's retirement from football, he was offered a job to coach the Maccabi Petah Tikva youth team, under head coach Eli Ohana. Luzon took over as manager after Ohana in the 2001–02 Israeli Premier League season, leading Maccabi to finish in 8th place. Luzon's biggest success at Maccabi was winning the Toto Cup in 2004 along with placing second in the 2004–05 Israeli Premier League and qualifying for the UEFA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round. Luzon was appointed by Hapoel Tel Aviv before the beginning of the 2007–08 Israeli Premier League season, however he resigned on 25 November 2007 when Hapoel was bottom of the league with only six points. Luzon returned to coach Maccabi Petah Tikva, however he resigned after only a few months, on 6 April 2008, because of several losses. On 12 June 2008, Luzon was appointed as manager of Bnei Yehuda, leading them to the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, where they had several victories before being knocked out by PSV Eindhoven in the play-off round. On 4 August 2010, Luzon was appointed to coach the Israel under-21 national team, with which he competed at the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship because Israel qualified automatically as hosts. Luzon led the Israeli U-21 team to a third-place finish in Group A, including a victory against the England U-21's. Luzon was appointed by Standard Liège on 27 May 2013. Luzon exceeded expectations, leading Standard to a second-place finish in the 2013–14 Belgian Pro League and qualifying for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League, where they lost in the play-off round to Zenit Saint Petersburg. On 20 October 2014, Luzon left his job at Standard because of the poor results in the beginning of the season. On 13 January 2015, Luzon was appointed as head coach of the English club Charlton Athletic. His first game in charge of Charlton Athletic was a 0–0 tie with Wolverhampton Wanderers on 24 January 2015. Luzon's first win as Charlton Athletic's coach was a 3–0 win against Brentford on 14 February 2015. Luzon was dismissed by Charlton on 24 October 2015, following poor results at the beginning of the season. On 13 February 2017, Luzon was appointed the manager of Maccabi Haifa.

Criticism

In the course of his career, several cases of problematic behavior are known that resulted in intense criticism towards him. After the victory of the young Israeli national team in the European under-21 championship in 2013 over England in a protocol match, Luzon celebrated the victory in an exaggerated way, which led to criticism towards him on social networks Luzon was also known for excessive celebrations when he coached Standard Liege in Belgium, and Charlton Athletic in England. In the playoff game against Ireland, in which Israel's young team qualified for the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship under Luzon's coaching, he slapped Ziv Morgan, a player on the team, which resulted in many condemnations and angry criticism of him in the media and social networks. In addition, Luzon said in an interview at the end of the game, "I arranged a vacation for the Israelis in Bucharest with an alibi" (the tournament was held in Romania and Georgia), a statement that was condemned by the Minister of Social Equality, Merav Cohen. In fact, in the end the team was not drawn in the games in Romania, but only in Georgia.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

As a manager