Valérien Alexandre Ismaël (born 28 September 1975) is a French professional football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club Watford.

A centre-back, Ismaël played for Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, Lens, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Hannover 96.

Ismaël was signed by Crystal Palace for £2.75 million from Strasbourg in January 1998, making him the most expensive player in the club's history.

He also had a short loan spell at his old club Strasbourg during the 2000–01 Division 1 season but could not help them avoid relegation.

He received a red card on his debut for the club, but finished the season winning the German league and cup double for the second time in his career.

However, he only featured once in the 2006–07 campaign for the club due to his long term injury and was eventually released to join Hannover 96 in January 2008.

Ismaël was brought to the club in order to strengthen the struggling defence and to provide leadership for his new teammates.

[8] His first game for Hannover was against his previous club, Bayern, playing well for 45 minutes and helping his team maintain a 0–0.

[11] Gernot Rohr, an expert of French football, explained the permanent non-consideration of Ismaël: "Although Valérien was a U-21 international, he was never an option for the senior team.

[4] It was reported that Togo also wanted to call up Ismaël to their squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, given his former wife is partially Togolese descent,[15] but he denied the approach and interest in the offer.

[21] Wolfsburg II won the Regionalliga Nord in the 2013–14 season[22] and lost to Sonnenhof Großaspach in the promotion play-off.

[32] First-team head coach Dieter Hecking was sacked on 17 October 2016 and was replaced by Ismaël on an interim basis.

[36] On 29 May 2018, it was announced that Ismaël had signed a two-year deal with Super League Greece club Apollon Smyrnis.

[37] However, after only managing them for one league game against Larissa on 25 August 2018, in which Apollon lost 0–1 at home, he was dismissed from his managerial post six days later due to disagreements with the club's president.

In LASK's first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League, the team won the group with Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven and Rosenborg.

After the Covid-19 induced pause of football, LASK trained a couple of days too early with full body contact.

The team did not play well any more, and four points were deducted for breaching the Coronavirus rules, which let them end on fourth position in the league.

[40] When Gerhard Struber decided to join New York Red Bulls in autumn 2020, Barnsley hired Ismaël as his successor.

[41] On 24 June 2021, Ismaël joined recently relegated Championship side West Bromwich Albion, signing a four-year contract and becoming the club's first French manager.