Raymond Domenech, former France football coach.

AFP/Paris

Controversial former France coach Raymond Domenech blasts Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and former France internationals Franck Ribery and Nicolas Anelka in his new book, due out today.

His book, called “Mon dico passione du foot” (My Passionate Football Dictionary) takes readers through an A to Z of his experiences in the game.

He mocks Mourinho, pointing to the former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss’s beginnings in football as a translator.

“That’s the problem with translators, there comes a time when they convince themselves they wrote the text themselves,” he says.

Anelka is described as a “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde” character while Ribery is treated particularly harshly.

Domenech accuses him of having “forced the national team to put up with his bad character, even his acts of stupidity, in South Africa and afterwards, but since then, Sir is in a mood because he wanted to win the Ballon d’Or”.

The former coach doesn’t spare France legends, although he gives Thierry Henry a favourable comparison to Zinedine Zidane.

He says that while Henry’s handball in a World Cup play-off against Ireland helped France qualify but damaged his image, Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final simply cost the country success.

Henry “sacrificed his image for the benefit of the France team” while Zidane “sacrificed the team’s chances for the benefit of his pride”.

He also attacks former players now working in the media for making criticisms of current players that “they would never have tolerated themselves”.

Finally he turns his attention to the Zahia Dehar affair, claiming the former former underage prostitute—whose clients included Ribery and Karim Benzema—was the only person to benefit from the scandal, turning herself into a celebrity.