As soon as CF Montreal started paying attention to Laurent Courtois, the latter became “obsessed” with him. Like a thunderbolt whose bursts never cease to tickle you.
“I’m not hiding it, it’s an adult dream that I’m realizing to be in front of you today,” said the new CFM head coach at the Nutrilait Center on Tuesday morning.
Courtois was accompanied by President Gabriel Gervais at the podium, overlooked by large windows overlooking the snow-covered fields of the training center. Note that sports director Olivier Renard, who led the interview process with his deputy Vassili Cremanzidis, was absent from the press conference for “personal reasons”.
“As soon as I set foot here, as soon as I started talking to people, it became an obsession for me,” adds Courtois.
“As soon as I got the confirmation, I jumped on the plane,” he jokes, causing laughter in the room. The plane was ready, I was waiting. This happened very recently. I’m an old, very old kid. I was obsessed, my children were obsessed, that’s all they talk to me about. […] The minute it was validated, we all jumped for joy. »
For Gabriel Gervais, the 45-year-old Frenchman “checked all the boxes that [le club] was looking for.”
“He wants to be in Montreal,” he said. He wants to be part of our project. »
Gervais praises his “excellent vision”, his “experience with young people”, qualities which “correspond perfectly to [leur] sports project”.
“Laurent comes with his own style, his own philosophy which matches ours. »
On the other hand, it does not come with a coaching staff, which will have to be named later. Courtois says he wants to trust the “people in place”, in particular Laurent Ciman, whose “great experience” will be able to “guide” him.
PHOTO RYAN REMIORZ, THE CANADIAN PRESS
CF Montreal president Gabriel Gervais and the team’s new head coach Laurent Courtois
“I don’t care and he doesn’t care”
We will return to his philosophy in another text – he spoke about it at length. For now, we have to deal with the elephant in the room.
Laurent Courtois arrives from the Columbus Crew reserve team. Crew who took Wilfried Nancy from the hands of CF Montreal, in 2022. The two men, two French moreover, must have discussed the circumstances leading to Nancy’s departure before Courtois accepted the Montreal offer, right?
No.
“Actually, people would be surprised,” he said, smiling. With Wilfried, whether by text or face to face, we talk more about playlists of Creole songs on Spotify that we like, rather than football. »
Courtois’ parents were born on the island of Reunion, off the coast of Madagascar.
“The worst part, he’ll never talk about it,” says the rookie technician about Nancy. He’s moving forward. He told me three things: “be yourself, buckle down, and enjoy it [be yourself, buckle up, and enjoy the ride] “. He told me in English too, it was funny. That’s literally the little we talked about. We talked about a lot of things, but not football. I should have taken advantage of it…”
Raised again a little later on the same subject, Courtois repeated the essence of the point, but in a slightly more concrete way.
“I don’t care and he doesn’t care. You know what I mean ? Nobody cares. »
On the club side, do we see his hiring as a certain revenge after the events of 2022?
“Not at all,” replies Gervais straight away.
All this has the merit of being clear.
“I will give everything”
Courtois’ agreement with the CFM is for two years. Does he see himself staying here in the longer term, having arrived at a club that really needs stability in this position?
“I’m here to really get involved in a project,” says the technician. I have been entrusted with a mission, I will try to develop it, I will give everything. […] Talking about the future is pretentious in football today. It’s so relative. »
Gervais states it bluntly: “It’s clear that we want to provide stability. If he can be here for 10 years, we’ll keep him for 10 years. But you have to understand that in modern soccer, there is a fairly high turnover rate in this position, for all kinds of reasons. »
In the short term at least, the club’s goals – and Courtois’ mission – are clear.
“We want to get into the series,” confirms the president. We want to have the chance to fight for the MLS Cup. We want to win the Canadian championship and return to the CONCACAF Champions League. »
“We are very, very confident that Laurent will help us realize our vision, as well as achieve our goals. »
More than 13,000 subscriptions sold
We knew that subscription sales were going well for CF Montreal, but perhaps not to this extent. The club confirmed to The Press Tuesday that he had already sold more than 13,000 for the 2024 season. While Gabriel Gervais had indicated to your daily newspaper in November that he wanted to reach the plateau of 10,000 for the next campaign, this new brand constitutes a almost unexpected record. Of course, the arrival of Lionel Messi in MLS and his potential arrival in Montreal on May 11 have increased these figures. The fact remains that after the many full houses at the Saputo stadium in 2023, the club is off to an excellent start in this young year 2024.