Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
You’ve got to be patient, though. Just look at Hugo Magnetti – five years ago, we’d never have said he was going to be a star player and capable of playing in the Champions League. Very few managers believed in him. He came here as a young lad; he was with us in Ligue 2, he fought to keep us in Ligue 1, and now he’s made history for the club by becoming the first player to score a goal for Brest in a European competition. It’s important to be able to find players who may be a little bit less appealing but who prove on the pitch that they are very important for a club like Brest. It goes to show that anything is possible in football and not everything follows a linear path.
A lot of journalists said it was wrong to have Brest in the Champions League because it set the wrong tone for the competition and reflected poorly on where France stands in terms of European football. However, the players have demonstrated that they deserve to be here. They’ve evolved into a side worthy of the Champions League. We’re immensely proud to have reached this point already and to have been able to make France, our club and our city proud in this way. It’s such a buzz. These are memories that will be etched in our hearts forever.
There’s no doubt we have a laugh about it too. To think that Brest would be top of the Champions League table at one point! Especially when you see all the teams that have been competing in this tournament for years, the giants of the game. You do think, “How did we end up here?”
But that’s anecdotal for us. We can now talk about Brest being on the European football map, and that’s the most important thing for me. In a way, it doesn’t matter how far we get in the competition now. What matters is that people see the club in a new light. If you go back nine years to when I took on this role and look at how far we’ve come since then, these are the special moments you need to enjoy, when you realise you are living the dream.
Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
You’ve got to be patient, though. Just look at Hugo Magnetti – five years ago, we’d never have said he was going to be a star player and capable of playing in the Champions League. Very few managers believed in him. He came here as a young lad; he was with us in Ligue 2, he fought to keep us in Ligue 1, and now he’s made history for the club by becoming the first player to score a goal for Brest in a European competition. It’s important to be able to find players who may be a little bit less appealing but who prove on the pitch that they are very important for a club like Brest. It goes to show that anything is possible in football and not everything follows a linear path.
A lot of journalists said it was wrong to have Brest in the Champions League because it set the wrong tone for the competition and reflected poorly on where France stands in terms of European football. However, the players have demonstrated that they deserve to be here. They’ve evolved into a side worthy of the Champions League. We’re immensely proud to have reached this point already and to have been able to make France, our club and our city proud in this way. It’s such a buzz. These are memories that will be etched in our hearts forever.
There’s no doubt we have a laugh about it too. To think that Brest would be top of the Champions League table at one point! Especially when you see all the teams that have been competing in this tournament for years, the giants of the game. You do think, “How did we end up here?”
But that’s anecdotal for us. We can now talk about Brest being on the European football map, and that’s the most important thing for me. In a way, it doesn’t matter how far we get in the competition now. What matters is that people see the club in a new light. If you go back nine years to when I took on this role and look at how far we’ve come since then, these are the special moments you need to enjoy, when you realise you are living the dream.
Brest fans love their club. It’s as simple as that. They are passionate and very loyal. As a player, I spent seven years here, and this is my ninth season as sporting director. I know fans who were supporting Brest when the club was called Brest Armorique and they were in the fourth or fifth division.
The fans can also be extremely partisan and territorial. They believe Brest to be among the top French clubs, and at times they have to be held back a bit! I’ve tried to set up a certain philosophy, bearing in mind that Brest will never become Paris Saint-Germain, even at a local level. You don’t work the same way for Brest as you would for Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille. The atmospheres are totally different. You need to focus on the mid to long term and not just the short term.
When I started this role, we were playing in Ligue 2, with only nine players in the squad, no coach and no infrastructure whatsoever. Just like a house, a team needs foundations to be built. For me, the first thing to do was set up a solid project and improve ourselves year after year. Three years after I started, we got promoted to the top flight, and six years later we’re playing in the Champions League. When you think about how far we’ve come in the last nine years, it’s totally unthinkable and unimaginable.
Recruitment plays a key role in a club’s success, but it is a constant challenge. Our resources over the years have not been very high, so we couldn’t recruit players worth millions, but what we do is think about how new players can help and fit in the team when they arrive. Over the last few years, we’ve managed to put young players in the spotlight and sell them at a very high price, and that’s been the basis of our success in both sporting and financial terms.
