It’s a song that has been echoing for many months in Rennes, the anthem that accompanied the club’s formidable year 2019 among supporters. “One day a long time ago, I fell crazy for you, don’t ask me how, it happened like this“says the song, to a tune borrowed from Liverpool fans. But how did it happen for those without Breton ties and parents who are supporters of the Red and Black? We interviewed five of them, who told us their history, their meeting with the club and their passion for Stade Rennais.Today meeting with Antoine, from Saint-Claude in the Jura.
A guy from my school came to see me and said two words to me: Mickaël Pagis. I cannot thank this guy enough who introduced me to Stade Rennais! – Antoine
His father is a fan of OM, his grandfather of Lyon, and yet Antoine has never hooked with these two mastodons of French football. The 29-year-old, who now works in logistics in Paris while simultaneously hosting an entertainment podcast on general culture, grew up in Saint-Claude in the Jura. “It’s not really a big football ground, Antoine laughs. There is Jura Sud Foot which is in the 1/16 final of the Coupe de France, but it happens once every 15 years. I had friends who supported Sochaux, but I didn’t get attached to it either. I started to follow football well during the 2007-2008 season, I watch Ligue 1 and I say to myself “which clubs interest me?” A guy from my school came to see me and said two words to me: Mickaël Pagis. I cannot thank this guy enough who introduced me to Stade Rennais! I loved the culture that there was around this club, the Breton culture, I loved the training center, and that it is a real club with a history, an identity. And I started to follow, despite the first years of difficult supporterism, with in particular the final lost against Guingamp in 2009. I hung on and I do not regret at all!”
A jersey offered by Mevlüt Erding
Antoine, who is also a big fan of rugby, author for the satirical site “Butcher Ovalie“and fan of Clermont, has often faced a form of misunderstanding about his support for Rennes from the Jura:”Nobody understood! But what’s cool is that the city I come from in the Jura, Saint-Claude, is also the birthplace of a certain Mevlüt Erding. And so when he signed for Rennes, he heard from others about me, who supported the club in the Jura. He brought me back a jersey worn by Alessandrini on a match. What’s cool about my situation is that I don’t have to fight over this stuff! I was probably the only one here he could give it to (laughs). But otherwise I lived the mockery like everyone else, with those who told me that Rennes did not win trophies … But I replied that I do not support a club for the trophies, obviously it’s too good when that happens, but I support a club for what it represents and I recognized myself in Rennes.“
His love for the club even guided Antoine in his studies: “After the license, I wanted to move from Besançon where I was at university. I told myself that I was going to look at what there was as masters in Rennes. I really wanted to spend two years there, going to the stadium every weekend. I was really getting to the city on my own, so I was going to the stadium on my own, but that didn’t bother me at all. So I found a master that I liked, I didn’t choose at random either. Again the people around me in my area did not understand. But I really wanted to know the whole identity of the club, hence my desire to spend two years in Brittany. I absolutely do not regret it today.”
A memorable first match, and “Aux Sports” evenings as a member of Roazhon’s Call
Now based in Paris, Antoine has joined the large Red and Black community of the capital: “It’s great, with the Roazhon’s Call (supporters’ club based in Paris, Editor’s note), there is a community that is there. I am a member of it. It’s nice to see matches with people with whom you can talk about Stade Rennais at half-time and during the match, and no longer alone in your teenage room.”
Before that, Antoine had gone to see his first Rennes match at Sochaux, the stadium closest to his home, in 2011. An unforgettable match: “For my first match, I kind of wondered what I had fallen into (laughs)! This is the famous Sochaux – Rennes where Tettey ends up in goal, and where Rennes loses 5-1 against Sochaux. I was there with my family, who wanted to support Sochaux to lodge me. I very much regretted going to this game with them (laughs).”
Since then, Antoine has been able to make up for it, since he was one of the tens of thousands of Rennes supporters present at the Stade de France on April 27, 2019. “The final is normal I live in Paris, I had no excuse not to go. I am a little less organized trips with supporters, with everything there is security around, it bothers me a bit. On the other hand, I admit that the Sunday matches at 1 or 3 p.m. suit me quite well because I can go back and forth from Paris to come and see them in Rennes.“This is also what he planned to do on Sunday January 16 to see Rennes – Bordeaux in Ligue 1.
So, for Antoine le Jurassien, the love of Stade Rennais, it happened like that.