Jean-Didier Lange, former president and co-president of the Girondins from 1991 to 1999, died on the night of Tuesday 16 to Wednesday 17 November at the age of 75 following a long illness, announced the Bordeaux club .
Lawyer by profession passionate about football, he worked in 1991 to take over, with the optician Alain Afflelou, the Girondins, then immersed in the legal proceedings of their historic and media president Claude Bez, which will result in the filing of bankruptcy, judicial liquidation and finally the relegation of the club to D2 in July 1991.
FC Girondins de Bordeaux is saddened to learn of the disappearance of Jean-Didier Lange.
On this sad day, the Club sends its most sincere condolences to his wife, his children, his family and all his loved ones.
➡ https://t.co/1ljlM8wtfG pic.twitter.com/iCI1Hys233
– FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) November 17, 2021
At the end of his first year in office alongside Afflelou, Bordeaux will return to the elite and four years later, with the future world champions Bixente Lizarazu, Zinédine Zidane and Christophe Dugarry in its ranks, reach the final of the UEFA Cup, lost to Bayern Munich.
The @girondins owe you a lot. You have been a great president and a wise advisor to the club.
Together, we experienced the demotion to League 2, the comeback to League 1 and the UEFA final. Unforgettable.
THANKS for everything very dear Jean Didier Lange. RIP. pic.twitter.com/nlMI3zm0ku– Bixente Lizarazu (@BixeLizarazu) November 17, 2021
From 1996, Jean-Didier Lange will be joined in the presidency by Jean-Louis Triaud, a winemaker who owns several châteaux in the Médoc, to whom he will leave the definitive reins of the club in 1999 when it is acquired by the audiovisual group M6 .
Since then, this leader had remained loyal to the Girondins, by sitting on the board of directors as an ultra-minority shareholder, whom he remained for more than twenty years even during the takeovers by the American investment funds GACP and King Street or again this summer after the club was taken over by the Spanish-Luxembourg businessman Gerard Lopez. “He carried in his heart and embodied, with humility, rigor and passion, the values of our Club “, indicates the press release from the Girondins.
The environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic praised the memory of a “tireless defender of the Girondins de Bordeaux“.”Passionate, he allowed our club to go through its most difficult times and also contributed to its most glorious moments.“, said the mayor in a statement.