External links
- Nicolas Jover at WorldFootball.net
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 28 October 1981 [1] | ||
| Place of birth | Berlin, Germany [1] | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Arsenal (set-piece coach) | ||
Nicolas Jover (born 28 October 1981) is a German-born French football coach who is currently the set-piece coach of Premier League club Arsenal. [2]
Born in Berlin, Germany, Jover was raised in France. [3] He moved to Quebec, Canada in his early twenties to study for a sports degree at the University of Sherbrooke, [4] courtesy of the link between University of Montpellier and Sherbrooke. [3] During his time there, Jover drew on the influence of North American sports such as the National Football League. [4] After studying for a master's degree, he joined Dynamik de Sherbrooke, a local amateur club, as their technical director. [3]
Jover returned to France and joined Montpellier as a video analyst in 2009. [3] [4] He helped them claim their first Ligue 1 title in the 2011–12 season, [5] which saw Montpellier boss René Girard received UNFP Ligue 1 Manager of the Year [6] and striker Olivier Giroud was named the league's top scorer by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. [7] While working at Montpellier, he also took a match analyst role for Croatia for a brief spell in 2013. [8]
Jover moved to England as a set-piece coach of Dean Smith at Brentford from July 2016, [9] and was part of Smith's successor Thomas Frank's coaching team until June 2019. [10] In the 2018–19 season he shared the same office with goalkeeping coach Iñaki Caña, [11] who would join Arsenal in December 2019. [12] [13]
In July 2019, Manchester City appointed Jover as an assistant to Pep Guardiola, specializing in set-pieces, [14] [15] on the recommendation of Mikel Arteta who was the No.2 at the Etihad. [16] [4] Arteta left Manchester City for the Arsenal's head coach job in December 2019. [17] [18] In the 2020–21 season, Jover helped Manchester City claim the Premier League title and reach the Champions League final. [3] He left his role in June 2021, when his contract expired at the end of the month. [3] [19]
On 5 July 2021, Jover was appointed as set-piece coach to manager Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, [20] [19] working alongside assistant coaches Albert Stuivenberg, Steve Round, Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina, and goalkeeping coach Iñaki Caña. [12] [21] In the 2023–24 season with Jover's help, Arsenal scored twenty set-piece goals (excluding penalties) in the Premier League, the most in the division. Sixteen of those came from corners, matching the record in a single Premier League campaign. [22]
