Pierre Ferrazzi

Pierre Ferrazzi was a French footballer and coach who made his name first as a prolific Division 2 striker and later as the manager who took Valence from regional football into the professional second division. Born in Dijon on 16 July 1946, he became an enduring figure in Drôme football and in the wider sporting life of Valence.

As a player he began with CSL Dijon before joining FC Grenoble, where in 1966 he finished as top scorer in French Division 2 with 30 goals. He later played for RC Joinville, FC Nantes and Stade de Reims, where he appeared in Raymond Kopa's last official match in 1968. Spells followed at AC Ajaccio, AS Aix-en-Provence and Stade poitevin, before he finished as a player-coach at FC Valence. He also represented France at junior, amateur and military levels, rounding out a career that spanned the amateur and professional tiers of French football in the 1960s and early 1970s.

His coaching reputation rests on the rise of Valence. After meeting club president Pierre Boyadjian of USJOA Valence, the Armenian community club of the city, Ferrazzi led the side from the Championnat de Promotion Honneur up the ladder through the mid and late 1980s. Regional reports credit the Boyadjian-Ferrazzi partnership with climbing several divisions in about seven years. After the merger that created ASOA Valence, the club played its first Division 2 season in 1992, a landmark remembered locally as the fruit of that earlier work. He later coached the fused Valence side into the early 1990s.

Away from the pitch he ran an advertising and communications agency in Valence for many years and stayed involved in regional events and sponsorships, including work around the Festival Sur le Champ. Friends and players knew him as Pierrot or le Gros. French regional media described him as a central figure in Valentinois sporting and economic networks as well as on the touchline.

Ferrazzi died in Valence on 26 September 2026 at the age of 80 after a long illness, according to ICI and France Bleu reports that called him an icon and legend of Valentinois football. French and English Wikipedia record the same death date. His playing peak at Grenoble and his coaching climb with Valence remain the twin pillars of how the city remembers him.