Why is this title of champion of France won 30 years ago so important for you, to the point of holding a place next to the 1998 World Cup?
It’s true that I always quote him: I was French D2 champion with the Girondins de Bordeaux. So it seems a bit ridiculous compared to the World Cup or the Champions League, but for me it’s important because it’s a life experience! We experienced the descent to D2 for administrative reasons, not for sporting reasons and it was not easy because I was at the start of my career, it worked very well for me as for Duga too (Editor’s note: Christophe Dugarry), and we had to agree to find ourselves a little in the shade in Division 2, but we recovered immediately. It was a great joy to put Bordeaux back in the first division, to put this team back where it should be. With hindsight, this title counts because it’s more than sport, it’s a human adventure.
It must be said that the team was crazy: led by Gernot Rohr with great players like Gaëtan Huard, Jean-Luc Dogon, Didier Sénac, Michel Milojević, Bernard Gimenez, Stéphane Plancque, Jean-Marc Ferratge, Christophe Dugarry, Philippe Fargeon…
A good little mix of old and then young people, we’re going to say players who are also tough enough to resist Ligue 2 and the virile fight, today, I’m laughing because we can’t do anything more, but at this At that time, it sent hard and so we still had players who were tough enough to resist in particular to away matches. We were well attacked. It was not easy because these are much more physical matches and we were expected at the turn. And then, there was a fight throughout the season with Strasbourg, especially with my friend Franck Leboeuf.
You were talking about the shadow of D2, but for the first match against Perpignan, there were 14,000 spectators! Lescure was complete against Strasbourg, there was a fervor behind the Girondins, even in D2!
Yes, it’s true, there has always been a fervor, I think the public considered it unfair to be demoted and also because the Ligue 2 project was very well put together thanks in particular to Jean -Didier Lange, of whom I think a lot, who died recently. It was well thought out, the squad was well structured, with a mix of old and young. And then there you go, for this club to get back to its best, we absolutely had to go back to the first division right away. So it was very well managed and that’s why it remains a very good memory for me.
To know everything about this incredible season, you can consult the website the legend of the Girondinsparticularly well informed.