Oussama Berkak counts and recounts. Since he arrived at the club in his youth, the captain of FC Versailles has experienced almost all divisions. Hard years in the 8th division until the arrival last summer of investors and an ambitious new management team. “It is certain that there has been a good evolution at Versailles and I think that the club has not finished growing.“, he confides at the microphone of France Bleu Paris. “It whets the appetite and attracts new players.“
This is the case of Melvyn Vieira, recruited this summer from Saint-Malo. His view of the Yvelinois club has changed. “The club was not too well known outside the Paris region”, he concedes at the microphone of France Bleu Paris. When we talked about the project, many people laughed. Well, we showed them that we succeeded.”
Thanks to the arrival of new investors this summer, to a substantial recruitment, the Versailles project has changed in dimension. It is now on the right track, FC Versailles is the leader of the National 2 and aims even higher, as confirmed by its new general manager, Jean-Luc Arribart: “I like to say that we have reasonable ambitions. When we are first in the National 2, do we want to fully play our luck to go to the National? Yes. Once in National, we will want to stay ten years in National? No. Do we want to move up to Ligue 2? Yes. How soon, I can’t say.”
We want to go higher, to join the professional world. – Jean-Luc Arribart, general manager of FC Versailles
The beautiful course in the Coupe de France, this round of 16 against Toulouse, remains an enchanting parenthesis, FC Versailles will above all have to go up to the top floor, the National 1, to hope to play in the medium term in the court of the big clubs in the Ile-de-France region.