Christophe Galtier has been the coach of OGC Nice, currently second in the Ligue 1 championship, behind PSG and ahead of OM, for almost six months. Crowned champion of France 2021 with Lille, he was also named best coach in Ligue 1 last season. We went to meet him in Nice, to discuss his background, his method and his ambitions.
franceinfo: How is the best coach in Ligue 1, acclaimed by his peers a few weeks ago?
Christopher Galtier: Good. Happy. It imposes to always be efficient, when you have such rewards. And it’s true that in recent seasons, the rewards are linked and we must always always be efficient.
If we look at your history, there was Saint-Etienne for a long time, then Lille, with which you were champion of France last season. And you’ve been in Nice for six months. Second in the championship, still in contention in the Coupe de France, you will face Paris Saint-Germain on Monday evening. How do we manage to always be efficient?
We make sure to maintain the requirement towards ourselves, and to transmit it to others. First of all, to my technical staff and to the medical staff, to all the people, to the team that works around the team. And of course, to my players, from day one. When I arrived in Nice, it was a strong message that I passed on to my group: the requirement, the requirement. And also very strong human relations.
Very strong human relations: we have the impression that this is what Christophe Galtier’s “leg” is. All the players who went to the locker room are unanimous on this: you have an extraordinary managerial relationship. Where did you get this report from?
I do not know. I don’t know if it’s in education or the coaches I’ve met, with whom I’ve worked. I am also thinking of my trainer, Mr. Gérard Gili, who was my trainer for a long time, who was my trainer, for whom I was also the assistant trainer. I also believe that’s my journey as an assistant coach for 10 or 11 years, of buffering number 1 and the players, of being between a rock and a hard place and being in contact with the players, always with the objective that the information goes back at the right time and in a very fair way.
“I only have one goal, which is for the team to perform. There is no one above the team, not even me.”
Christophe Galtierat franceinfo
Everyone is obsessed with the collective, but you have an additional obsession which is quite rare: a form of praise for simplicity, including in your game plan. You like things simple, therefore effective. Is that also part of the Galtier method?
Yes, I assume that the simpler it is, the easier it is to understand. Simplicity is the most difficult thing and that’s what I tell my players very often: play in the simplest way and you will surely be more efficient. But it is very difficult to implement. At the management level, I fight every day so that there is as little injustice as possible in a locker room and above all that the players feel that there is justice in the way I want to approach work, my relationship. with the players and bring them to very high goals, but through a justice that is valid for everyone.
You are also a man who is part of projects, we saw it in Lille. There too, you said yes to the Ineos project here in Nice. If you had to sum up the ambition of this club, what would it be?
I want the club to be very ambitious. How do you make a project very ambitious? It is working, exchanging. Nothing left unsaid and always looking to improve. How do we seek to improve? It’s going to take what you don’t have there, going to find it elsewhere. I ask all my collaborators and I also ask each time I have a meeting with the Ineos group, to bring us the maximum of skills from outside which should allow us to transcend ourselves to be efficient.
The Ineos group is F1, it’s cycling, sailing, athletics, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others. And everything they touched, they succeeded, so obviously they took big teams, whether in cycling, whether in sailing, whether in Formula 1. But I’m sure that when we have so many results, so much success, it is not the result of chance. There are people who think. I often ask that these people really add value to OGC Nice, to always seek to improve. But in everything: in recovery, in food hygiene, in performance, high performance, in structure, in infrastructure, in the quality of lawns. In all.
Does this mean that you too, individually, are inspired by yourself, do you observe what other trainers, other coaches, in France and abroad are doing?
Verry much. I don’t copy, I inspire. I watch the Premier League a lot, obviously, because I think it’s the toughest league. And I especially look at coaches who have moved from one championship to another. I look at Conte, what he was able to do in Italy, what he can do in England. I have relations with Stefano Pioli, coach of AC Milan, whom I met when he was at Lazio in Rome. I look at what is also happening in Germany with a new generation of coaches, and in Germany, coaches are being launched earlier and earlier.
“I also find that the French coaches have made enormous progress, because they are more and more curious.”
Christophe Galtierat franceinfo
And at the same time, you don’t particularly want to go abroad. Are you a great defender of Ligue 1 and French football?
Yes, I always defend Ligue 1 because I know it’s a very difficult championship and I realize that, to discuss with many French coaches, of course, but also with foreign coaches who arrive in Ligue 1 , to whom I always welcome. They tell me that it is a very difficult championship. It is a rhythmic, committed championship, where there is not much difference between the teams.
It’s time for wishes again. Do I wish you the France team one day, as coach?
The France team, I think it’s the finest thing for a coach: coaching his country, his national team, it must be something exciting, exciting, difficult. As a kid or even a young assistant coach, I always said to myself: hey, it must be nice to be the coach of your country’s team. Am I capable of holding this position? I do not know. I don’t have the experience, unlike Didier (Deschamps), unlike Laurent (Blanc) previously.
“I think the future coach – as late as possible for Didier – will be Zizou.”
Christophe Galtierat franceinfo
The France team must come back to him if he wants it. It’s an incredible dream, but I have the right to dream!