Damien Jacques Comolli (born 24 November 1971)[1] is a French former football coach and scout and the current director of football of Toulouse FC. He has previously worked with the clubs Monaco, Saint-Étienne, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Fenerbahçe.[2] He has been president of Toulouse FC since 20 July 2020.
Comolli was born in Béziers, France, and played as a youth team player at Monaco. In 1992, he began a three-year coaching job with Monaco, where he looked after the club's under-16 squads and won the state championship at that level. Comolli completed a law degree in 1995 and gained his French coaching licence.
In 1996, Comolli joined Arsenal and spent seven seasons as a European scout and is credited with the discovery of several of Arsenal's players such as Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué and Gaël Clichy.[3] Between 2004 and 2005, he was technical director of Saint-Étienne.[4] The club went through a successful period, finishing sixth in the league and reaching the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. During his time there, he also oversaw a number of important first team signings and developed partnerships with junior and amateur clubs, locally, nationally and internationally.
In 2005, Comolli became director of football at Tottenham Hotspur, with overall responsibility for the medical, academy, scouting and club secretarial departments, replacing the outgoing Frank Arnesen.[5] During his time there, he had several disagreements with first-team head coach Martin Jol, who, after his departure from Spurs, complained several players had been signed by Comolli without his agreement and that they had left the squad "unbalanced".[6][7]
Comolli spent three years in the job but with Tottenham performing poorly in 2008–09 and some of Comolli's signings coming in for criticism,[8] he was dismissed in October 2008, shortly after the dismissals of manager Juande Ramos, assistant Gus Poyet and first team coach Marcos Álvarez, as the director of football position was abolished at the insistence of incoming manager Harry Redknapp.[9] During his time at Tottenham, Comolli was responsible for Tottenham's policy of signing young talents.[10] Comolli was also responsible for the signings of former Tottenham first-team squad members Luka Modrić, Benoît Assou-Ekotto, Heurelho Gomes, David Bentley, Vedran Ćorluka and Roman Pavlyuchenko, as well as Dimitar Berbatov.[11]
On 9 November 2008, it was announced that Comolli would return to Saint-Étienne as sporting director.[12] His appointment led to the departure of manager Laurent Roussey.[13] After leaving Saint-Étienne for Liverpool, the club's co-chairman Bernard Caiazzo said that Comolli was responsible for causing the club's financial problem and told the News of the World:[14][15]
"Damien spent €22 million [£18.7 million] of our money on seven players in summer of last year. Only one is a first-team regular now. We gave him the keys to our club and are now in financial difficulties. My own view of Damien is he favours size and strength as the qualities he goes for first. Perhaps, he will do better with more money at his disposal at Liverpool than he did with us.
On 3 November 2010, Comolli's appointment as director of football strategy at Liverpool was announced, with part of his remit being to oversee the recruitment of new players to the club.[16] Comolli made an instant impact at Liverpool as he was responsible for the signings of two players, Luis Suárez and Andy Carroll, in January 2011's transfer deadline day, with Carroll's signing breaking the record for most expensive British player ever.[17] On 22 March 2011, Comolli was appointed as the director of football at Liverpool.[18][19]
In the summer transfer window for the 2011–12 season, Comolli helped Liverpool sign Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Doni, José Enrique, Sebastián Coates and Craig Bellamy. On 12 April 2012, Comolli left Liverpool by mutual consent.[20] After leaving Liverpool, Comolli spoke out defending the club's record.
Comolli joined Toulouse FC in 2020, following RedBird Capital's purchase of a controlling stake in the club. Two years after his arrival, Toulouse returned to the top tier of French football by winning Ligue 2.[21] A year later, the club won its first ever Coupe de France.[22]
Toulouse under Comolli has become known for its use of statistical analysis in recruiting and managing players. According to Comolli, Toulouse "makes all decisions on the basis of data and statistics".[23]
