2023-11-30 23:44:00
René Girard ended 30 years on the sidelines. Three decades during which he experienced everything. Assistant within the greatest French team in history, he also experienced from the inside the biggest fiasco in the history of the Blues. But René Girard is above all the most incredible feat of the 21st century: the title of French champion of Montpellier ahead of PSG of QSI and LOSC of Eden Hazard in 2012.
From Nîmes to PFC, from Lille to Nantes until this retirement which imposed itself on him, he unfolds for us the thread of an atypical career where he was twice elected best coach in Ligue 1. Often reduced to a style of defensive and reductive play, Girard reestablishes some of his truths during a flashback populated by the greatest players: Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly and, of course, Olivier Giroud.
René Girard Montpellier
Credit: AFP
Let’s start at the end. Why did you choose to end a 30-year career on the sidelines?
RG: We are in a world where I recognize myself less. My last experience at Paris FC was a failure in terms of human relations. If I had had an opportunity that I really liked, I would have dove once more. Football has changed a lot in human relations. It’s less worth the investment today. I was disappointed with my last three experiences: my time in Nantes, the failure in Marrakech and the PFC. It’s a lot. These are commitments that I wanted to end, which is not my style.
Is it more difficult today for a coach to be responsible for a project?
RG: When people bring you in and try to get you to change direction, it’s annoying. I have a character, a way of seeing things. And we are in a delicate phase. The world of coaches must be vigilant. Don’t let yourself be too overwhelmed by everything that happens. We are more lenient with what arrives from abroad than with French coaches. We tend to put labels on people. I was accused of being a defensive coach but we were French champions in 2012 with Montpellier and look at our attack (editor’s note: 68 goals that season)… For my talkative side, my participation on the sidelines, I heard say: “He is nervous, temperamental…” Well, Sampaoli, Bielsa and a few others, what do we say?
Rene Girard
Credit: Eurosport
You have had very diverse experiences on the sidelines over 30 years. In 2000, you were Roger Lemerre’s assistant at the Euro and you worked closely with arguably the best French team in history. What do you remember regarding it 23 years later?
RG: It was extraordinary. I was still champion of France three times, I won Cups, made a semi-final of the Champions League. But playing a Euro with this French team, the most beautiful in history, was perfection in terms of the game. When I was on the sidelines or watching training, I was happy. Zidane, Petit, Lizarazu… They had everything in terms of mentality, technique, state of mind… I remember the semi-final once morest Portugal, it was incredible. I was happy to experience this up close.
What do we learn from these players?
RG: We don’t train these boys… They had incredible maturity and self-confidence. When I started, I asked myself if we might lose a match with this team. It was a ballet. When you are on the sidelines and you see Zizou in full possession of his means, you are close to absolute perfection. It is the foot ! Even when you’re a technician and you see it from the inside, you say to yourself: ‘But actually, football is easy!’ In motivation, in the approach to matches, there is always something to learn. By winning, their confidence overflowed with great simplicity. A guy like Marcel Desailly, to prepare for a match, did technical ranges one on one and rehearsed everything he was going to do during the match. But with crazy simplicity.
In 2002, maybe we saw ourselves as too beautiful
Looking back, how do you explain the crash of 2002?
RG: Maybe we saw ourselves as beautiful. I remember the preparation match once morest Belgium that we lost (editor’s note: 1-2 in May 2002) when we didn’t think that anything might happen to us. This meeting was awkward. There had been a lot of festivities. Adidas was preparing the jersey with the two stars, there had been a parade and we were preparing to leave for Korea. It was a party. We mixed up everything and left being world champion before our time. We’ve come too far. We forgot that in football, it was the pitch that counted. Then we continue with the friendly once morest South Korea where Zizou is injured. And when the maestro drops the baton… Everyone was touched, because we knew intimately that he was lost for the rest of the competition. We have lost lucidity.
Zidane’s Blues, defeated by Denmark at the 2002 World Cup
Credit: Getty Images
Before the World Cup, did you sense a fiasco coming?
RG: We didn’t tell ourselves that we were going into trouble the day the World Cup started. But we were much less happy than in 2000, much more worried. Concerned regarding Zizou, regarding this defeat once morest Belgium… This team didn’t leave anything lying around, we were killers. And losing once morest Belgium really upset us. The mood was clearly chilled. I felt it personally and I was worried. And then, Zidane pulled the group and that made everyone bend.
Much later, on SFR Sport, Christophe Dugarry declared: “In 2002, we loved Roger (…) but we didn’t listen to him anymore, or much anymore.”
RG: But it’s boys who eat you up. They are guys with a lot of personality. Roger was very open, he didn’t bang on the table. And we ended up believing that we would win everything… You are world and European champion, of course, there was undoubtedly a relaxation.
You have coached generations of great players. If you had to keep one player for your entire career, who would it be?
RG: Yes, I saw some happen, particularly when I was coach of the Espoirs for four years. But, if I have to keep one, I would say John Utaka in Montpellier. He was exceptional as a player and as a man.
A feat like that, I’m not convinced it will happen once more tomorrow
Precisely, Montpellier and this unexpected title in 2012. Is this your greatest pride?
RG: Yes. We are not initially cut out for that. Top 5 wasn’t even a goal. A feat like that, I’m not convinced it will happen once more tomorrow. We must take the dimension of what we have experienced. It’s indelible. Facing us, we had Hazard’s Lille and QSI’s first PSG. It’s not just anything.
René Girard and Louis Nicollin on the night of the Montpellier title in 2012
Credit: Getty Images
Rémy Cabella but especially Olivier Giroud have had a great career since. But you didn’t have a squad studded with stars either.
RG: Succeeding in creating such a collective, such a group, is the strength of this season. Camara, Aït-Fana, Utaka, they all left for the CAN in January. If we compared the numbers with Lille or Paris, there was no comparison. But the state of mind of this group… It’s my biggest satisfaction. And it wasn’t a catch-22 title. We never went below 3rd place. Everyone wondered if we were going to hold on… My big fear was the loss of attention and aggression. And yes, we did it.
At that time, might you have imagined that Olivier Giroud would become the top scorer in the history of the Blues?
RG: No, impossible. That he was going to have a great career, yes. But this one… Besides, anyone who tells you that he thought Olivier would end up top scorer in the history of the Blues when he was in Montpellier is a liar. For me, it’s a phenomenon. What I admire regarding him is his journey. Grenoble does not keep him. He goes to Istres then to Tours. Foreign clubs crowd around him. But he wanted to stay in France. He always took the time to build things. He has a serenity in him… However, he might have doubted. We’re making a fuss over some who haven’t made it a quarter of their career. He is always obliged to prove despite all his accomplishments.
Is it his departure that made you plunge the following year (editor’s note: 9th in L1)?
RG: Of course. The danger in clubs like Montpellier yesterday or Lens today is obviously the departure of key players. Replacing them is impossible. When we play Arsenal in C1, he is opposite and that changes everything. Of course it’s a regret that I will always have.
We don’t win matches by throwing tatane shots in front
Many have done it for you, how would you define the René Girard style following 30 years of coaching?
RG: I have always been classified as a defensive player. Yes, I played number 6. When I look closely, I must have scored around fifty goals. For a guy who only thinks regarding defending, that’s not bad, right? I always loved the game. I had a roughness that didn’t please everyone but I always wanted my teams to let loose. You don’t win matches by throwing punches in front even if they wanted to caricature me like that. I never asked my team to swing. I wanted total football: in the commitment, the state of mind. Never let go. My thing was to adapt to all the opponents.
René Girard during Montpellier-Lille, 2014-15 season.
Credit: AFP
You are ultimately from the same coaching family as Didier Deschamps.
RG: That’s true, even if it’s very flattering. We played the same position in fact. It wasn’t always a marvel of football, but I was looking for efficiency.
Would you say that the emergence of the Pep Guardiola movement, who has been held up as a model over the last decade, has made you out of fashion?
RG: It’s not offensive but we always come back to the same things. The best compliment anyone might give me was to say that my teams looked like me. But it’s like on the field, guys will do two leg passes and will be considered phenomena… The important thing is regularity, efficiency. Sometimes I got angry at the way people looked at me.
What is your opinion of the Guardiola model who has influenced European football?
RG: Guardiola is great but he coached directly at Barça. It must be nice and exciting to have a team of great players like that, right? I think that with these players, we have to put things in place more easily than in less talented teams, right? Sometimes I tell myself that I would have liked to coach teams with this talent but it didn’t happen. I probably didn’t do the right thing.
Champion with Lille, Christophe Galtier had the opportunity to coach PSG. Why did no one think of you in big clubs when you were twice elected coach of the year in L1? Has the label of defensive coach that was given to you penalized you?
RG: Yes, it scared some people, that’s for sure. After Montpellier, I didn’t do so badly with Lille. A club which had ambitions even if the second year, when we had qualified for the Champions League, we sold Salomon Kalou and I told the president (editor’s note: Michel Seydoux) that I was not came for that. I came for something bigger. I left. So yes, I have the regret of not coaching in a very big club.
My biggest mistake? Nantes
If you only had to keep one game from your 30s on the bench, which one would it be?
RG: There’s one that stays with me forever. Before the last match of our championship season with Montpellier, we play Lille at home. If we draw, we’re dead. We scored the only goal of the match in the 94th minute thanks to Aït-Fana and Giroud while the pressure was crazy. It’s a crazy moment which allows us to play for the title in Auxerre the following week and deprive Lille of a double.
Conversely, your worst memory on a bench?
RG: We are going to play in Evian just before the break in the year of the title. We lost 4-2 following leading twice. At the same time, Paris becomes autumn champion following a victory in Saint-Etienne. I was beside myself. I say to them: ‘I hope you have a crappy holiday, as terrible as possible and that you piss yourself off as much as I did.’ Because they were going on vacation and moving on. When you are a coach, you know which player has packed the bags to go to the mountains or spend the holidays with family. I had dreaded that. They had let the team down.
What is the biggest mistake you have made?
RG: Having signed for Nantes. I thought I might do something else but I realized that I mightn’t… With the president, it got complicated very quickly. I wondered if we were in the same club. It was painful.
What is the big lesson you have learned from these 30 years at the highest level on the bench?
RG: My dream was to be a professional player. Then to share experiences because I deeply love the collective. And coaching is a job that teaches humility. Always prove, always question yourself. The truth doesn’t last long. It goes quickly, you can be champion of France then in a bottomless hole in an instant. But it’s worth it…
Waldemar Kita, the president of FC Nantes (left) and René Girard, in August 2016.
Credit: AFP
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