These are the footballers of another era. No fuss and available despite a big schedule. A phone call in the morning. The meeting is fixed a few hours later, near the Marcel Saupin stadium, where the FC Nantes U19 team are preparing to discover the Youth League, against the Armenians of FC Pyunik. A glass of syrup in hand, “I never drink alcohol, I leave that to others“, he smiles, Stéphane Ziani agreed to take a leap of 25 years in the past to evoke his Lensoise season on the occasion of the coming of the Sang et Or at La Beaujoire, this Sunday afternoon. “It was the time when I had more hair and less weight“, loose the coach of the National 2 team, with a smirk. Only player to have been champion of France with RC Lens and FC Nantes “his favorite club“Stéphane Ziani agreed for a good half hour to come back to his only season in Artois which seemed to him ten.It was concentrate“says the former midfielder with incisive hooks and a velvet left foot.
“I only stayed a year but it was powerful”
What do you think of when you are told Nantes and Lens?
It reminds me of a lot of good things, already my two championship titles, they are two heart clubs between my training club, my lifelong club and Lens, a club where I only stayed one season but with whom I have a special attachment because I find myself in its values, like in Nantes. These are two clubs which, somewhere, resemble each other, with real human values. It was two great stories.
Is the atmosphere also similar to Bollaert and Beaujoire?
When I played, and it has evolved since, in Nantes, it was a fairly demanding audience because they were used to seeing teams always at the top of the table. Now there is a new generation that savors every moment and when you see the atmosphere she creates, the people in the stands, it’s quite extraordinary. In Lens, it’s different with an English stadium where the weekend match is the meeting of the week. There is a real attachment, like Nantes in the end. There is closeness, loyalty and there is a great atmosphere.
Between Daniel Leclercq and me, there was really an incredible connection and mutual trust. He is one of the people who impressed me the most.
Why did you only stay one season in Artois?
You always say to yourself: will we do better? Are we still going to climb? I don’t know if it’s selfish to think like that but as far as I’m concerned, I built my football career as a life course. And I liked to discover new things. It was only a matter of opportunity but I would have been very happy to stay. Afterwards, it was like that and the club found its account financially, so I only stayed a year but it was powerful. It was concentrate.
– Gerard Circles
Don’t you regret leaving Deportivo La Coruña so soon?
In Lens, it was a full season. I was coming to a period in my professional life when there were opportunities. It is often said that at 26 you come of age. We are champion of France, that year, finalist of the Coupe de France, semi-finalist of the Coupe de la Ligue. There was indeed the Champions League, the following season, I felt really good with a super president, Gervais Martel, but there were offers abroad that I didn’t want to miss.
I have plenty of anecdotes of people giving you gifts, pigeons they just chased, flowers they put in front of your door to congratulate you.
In Lens, you also meet Daniel Leclercq. Was it the same style as Raynald Denoueix?
They are two football lovers, two very good educators, two trainers but they are completely different. There is one, Raynald, who is more composed and for whom I have great respect because he accompanied me throughout my adolescence and he trained me. And on the other side, Daniel who was apart, a little artistic and very demanding. Sometimes it wasn’t fun but there was never anything unsaid with him. With Daniel, it was a real encounter. At the beginning we had sintered and after we became very close, the proof even when I left we continued to call each other. Between us, there was really an incredible connection and mutual trust. He is one of the people who have influenced me the most in my life.
– Gerard Circles
When Stéphane Ziani scored two goals, ultimately disallowed, against Nantes
Is it an impression or did this year in the Pas-de-Calais really mark you?
There are people who are extraordinary, the region where there is a real passion for RC Lens. When I arrive from Bordeaux, you ask yourself questions and a season later, I leave with tears in my eye. It really reminds me of the movie Welcome to the Ch’tis. Real life with very beautiful values, sincere relations, a nice group with a real soul in this club. There was something special in Lens. I feel like I stayed there for 10 years when I only did one season there. There is such an atmosphere, in the club, in the city, I have lots of anecdotes of people who give you gifts, of the pigeons they have just chased, of the flowers they put in front of your door to congratulate you. The people are welcoming, warm, they are fabulous people who for some were in financial difficulty but they gave you everything, for the Racing Club de Lens. On the other hand, they asked you not to cheat and to wet the jersey, yes. The mining heritage is very present and I felt it especially since when I arrived at the club, there are people who had been there for a very long time and they passed on the soul of the Lensois, like Jean -Guy Wallemme or Éric Sikora, Guillaume Warmuz and Cyrille Magnier. They gave you the tempo, and when I arrived, I understood that in training, it was not fun, work was work, especially with Daniel Leclercq and outside, on the other hand, it was good living.
Do you consider that your Lensoise season is, with the 2000/2001 exercise in Nantes, the most successful on a footballing level?
These are the ones who have been prolific with a title at stake. We always talk about balance in a team, behind me I had Marc-Vivien Foé and Frédéric Déhu. In front of me I had a lot of speed with Vladimír Šmicer, and power too with Anto Drobnjak, with whom I had played in Bastia. And Tony Vairelles who was a space swallower. But it’s true that in Lens, by my profile I had exactly the players I needed next to me.
I really like the energy that emerges from this Nantes team.
– Philippe Hughen
During your season in Pas-de-Calais, you delivered 7 assists and scored 11 goals. You even score two goals against the Canaries but both are disallowed. Do you remember that?
Yes, very well, there is one who is refused for offside, the other too, from memory. It was forbidden. You have to believe that life did not want me to score against my training club.
Do you still continue to follow Lens, after all these years?
I am in regular contact with alumni or with my president at the time, Gervais Martel. I almost came back from elsewhere. But to answer the question, I continue to follow them. I think Franck Haise does an exceptional job with Florent Ghisolfi [coordinateur sportif des Sang et Or, ndlr] I knew at Bastia in 2005. It’s quite incredible, there is a good mix, this team makes you want to watch it. I feel the same energy and the same state of mind that we had in 1998.
And what do you think of FC Nantes today?
I really like the energy that emanates from this team. They are good guys, and I realize that for myself because I have the chance to meet them, they are a good team of friends. They were able to get out of the difficulty, and it was not won, they were able to rely on human values and they were able to create something together and behind, they are having an extraordinary season. They don’t let go, and that’s also why I think there is a communion with the public. They don’t cheat.