FC Nantes – Michel Der Zakarian: “One of the hottest audiences in France”

He returned home, to La Baule, to recharge his batteries. Just over two weeks after Stade Brestois told him to leave, Michel Der Zakarian already aspires to find a club. In the meantime, he is having a good time on the golf courses while keeping a close eye on the football. The former coach of FC Nantes and Clermont Foot, two clubs which face each other this Sunday afternoon at La Beaujoire, has agreed to come back to “two passages of [s]a very rewarding life“. His first two experiences as the head coach of a professional team. Silent, as always, and sometimes laughing, the man who will turn sixty in four months has gone back in time. “Since then, I have taken a few wrinkles“, he smiles.

Michel Der Zakarian, a Nantes tradition

Finally in Nantes, we like to bring back the old glories. The tradition has never ceased from Anton Raab to Vahid Halilhodžić via Raynald Denoueix, Loïc Amisse, Angel Marcos and of course Jean-Claude Suaudeau and today Antoine Kombouaré. Michel Der Zakarian is part of this closed circle. Fed to yellow and green philosophy, thrown into the deep end by Jean Vincent, champion of France in 1983, between the Armenian and the Canaries, it’s a story that lasts. Despite extremely fresh relations with the current president, Waldemar Kita, whose first steps as owner of the eight-star club he witnessed very closely. “In Nantes, my first visit was shorter than I imaginedregrets the former defender. After the climb, after three matches I was fired.“

He will remain unemployed for nine months before bouncing back to the lower level, in Auvergne. “Clermont, it was three very rewarding yearsappreciates Michel Der Zakarian. You had good people with the Alessandrini, Benatia, a squad of young players who wanted to learn and progress. Over the three seasons we almost climbed twice, we touched them, these climbs.” From his three seasons in Puy-de-Dôme, the former Montpellier technician was marked by “two very cold winters (laughs)” but also by the osmosis at all levels of the management of a club which “work with great serenity“, in the shadow of rugby, a flagship sport in the region. Before finding the light in Nantes.

“I am very happy for the Nantes public”

Two passages, two climbs in Ligue 1 and each time a delicate break
. But the Franco-Armenian prefers to talk about what he loves: FC Nantes. And of his return to the European scene, the one on which he had climbed four decades earlier and where he had notably made Beaujoire rise by scoring the first goal against Inter Milan in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. “I am very happy for the Nantes publiche assures, bluntly. Against Qarabag, I saw the goals and when you see the public, the fervor that there is behind this team, I tell myself that it is really one of the hottest public in France.“

If FC Nantes is in the European Cup, it is because Antoine has done a very good job.

The fever of Thursday evenings rediscovered thanks to the work of Antoine Kombouaré. “The trainer is always involved when things don’t work, but you also have to make the connection when things work wellunderlines the winner of the League Cup with Montpellier. If FC Nantes is in the European Cup, it is because Antoine has done a very good job. He saved them the year before, then they won the title last season which allows them today to be in Europe and to have a good run so far. He does a good job. He is very good in the management of the team, but also on the ground, he is rigorous in the phases when he does not have the ball. You have to know how to make your team attack well but also have it defend well. ” Antoine Kombouaré could not have said it better.