City’s Kisnorbo off to French club: report

Melbourne City coach Patrick Kisnorbo will reportedly depart the Isuzu UTE A-League club to take the helm at French Ligue 1 club Troyes.

French outlet L’Equipe reported Kisnorbo, who has been hugely successful at City, will replace Bruno Irles, who was sacked on November 8.

Troyes, like Melbourne City, is also a part of the City Football Group.

At Troyes, who sit 13th in Ligue 1, Kisnorbo would reunite with mentor and former City coach Erick Mombaerts, who he worked under in 2019-20.

Kisnorbo, 41, would be the first Australian to coach in one of Europe’s top five men’s leagues, joining the likes of Ange Postecoglou, Kevin Muscat and Peter Cklamovski in leading overseas clubs.

City currently sit outright top of the ALM with five wins and a draw after scoring 14 goals across their opening six games.

While City are set to have to find a new head coach, the situation has been made somewhat simpler by the league breaking for the start of the World Cup.

City aren’t officially in action again until facing Sydney FC on December 10.

Kisnorbo won the ALM premiership-championship double in his first season after succeeding Mombaerts in 2020-21 and also claimed the premiers plate in 2022-23.

He also coached City to an A-League Women championship in 2018.

Kisnorbo, who previously played for Leicester City and Leeds United, has long held ambitions of coaching in Europe.

In 2020 he told AAP he hoped succeeding in the ALM would allow him to follow other Australian coaches in testing himself overseas.

“We’re in a league (where) it’s great to have a lot of Australian coaches to develop,” Kisnorbo said.

“You see the pathway of obviously (Tony) Popovic and Musky (Kevin Muscat) and you want to be part of that.”

AAP has contacted Melbourne City for comment.