CHRISTIAN DAMIANO has virtually a lifetime of coaching experience behind him - and much of it working with some of the most French footballers of all time, including being credited with producing David Ginola.

The 54-year-old, pictured right, made the switch from being a player to a coach at the tender age of 25, when he became the Academy director and first team as-sistant coach with French first division side Nice.

It was during his nine years at Nice that Damiano stumbled across a promising 13-year-old Ginola and nurtured him to become one of the 1990s most talented players.

In the latter half of the 1980s, Damiano took one of the three coaching jobs at the French National Academy at Clairfontaine before taking charge of successful French national sides from under-16 level through to the under-20s.

It was during this period of his career that Damiano worked alongside Gerard Houllier and took the under-18 team to victory in the 1996 European Championships with a team that included Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, Nicolas Anelka and Mikael Silvestre - all players that played a major role in the senior side repeating the achievement four years later.

Between 1993 and 1998, Damiano was involved with the senior side, taking responsibility for watching French stars across the world to report back to first Aimet Jacques and later Roger Lemerre.

In 1999, Damiano was appointed assistant coach to the national team before Nice's owners, AS Roma, asked him to return to the French Riviera to become first team manager.

Damiano later left the French side to join up with Jean Tigana at Fulham and helped lift the London side into the Premiership in 2001.

However, when Tigana left the club in 2003, Damiano closely followed.

But it wasn't long before he was back in work again, this time employed by Houllier as assistant manager at Liverpool.

That spell started in July 2003 and lasted until the summer, when Houllier was sacked.

But, again, it hasn't taken Damiano long to find work after nearly 30 years coaching not only footballers but coaches as well.