The first leg had acted as a trigger. Martin Terrier is therefore eager to find Saint-Étienne, Saturday April 30, as part of the 35th day of Ligue 1. On December 5, he single-handedly crushed ASSE by scoring a hat-trick, during a one-sided game (5-0). Since then, Stade Rennes (3rd) has interfered in the fight for qualification for the Champions League. Transformed this year, Terrier has asserted himself as one of the key men of the Breton team.
Since these three goals, the 25-year-old striker has been walking on water: Martin Terrier is currently the second top scorer in Ligue 1 (21 goals) behind Kylian Mbappé (24 goals). He who had only scored 23 in the league in four and a half years until then … Above all, he has scored in each of his last seven games and is only two units away from equaling the record goals in a season in the top flight for a player from Rennes. An outbreak that more people were expecting.
However, those who saw him evolve in the youth categories of LOSC, his training club, imagined him one day occupying this rank: “He was always one step ahead and the ability to always make the right choices. He was above“, underlines Mickaël Foor, his coach for four years when he started in Lille in 2004.
“At 17-18, he was one of the best players on the attacking front. In terms of gesture, finish, he was surgical. He is very intelligent. It actually stinks of football“, confirms Stéphane Dumont, current coach of Guingamp and coach of Martin Terrier with the Lille U19s for three seasons. “He had great potential. What he realizes today is the logical continuation“, launches Sébastien Pennacchio, who had played alongside Terrier for a season in the reserve team of LOSC.
7 – Martin Terrier has scored in 7 consecutive matches in Ligue 1, only Hervé Guermeur has had a longer streak for Rennes in the top flight (8 in April-August 1972) since Opta analyzed the data (1950/51) . Unleashed. #SRFCFCL pic.twitter.com/dckFxKiatL
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 24, 2022
Considered a great hope on his debut in Ligue 1 with Lille in 2016, at 19, he was recruited by Olympique Lyonnais, who smelled the right shot. But beyond this raw talent, there is discretion on the pitch and a certain “mental deficiency“which are observed, as described by Foor.”He could play a great match and be totally absent in the next one“, explains the one who remained close to the player after his professional debut.
“He really had a hard time hurting himself. He was like that in everyday life, and it showed on the pitch“, emphasizes Dumont. Naturally gifted, Terrier was not enough “killer“, not enough “bad“on the pitch, remembers the Guingamp coach. The striker is discreet, introverted in everyday life, and finds it difficult to manage the sudden media coverage to which he is subject.
In Lyon, it does not fit. “Terrier walks emotionally. OL is a navel-gazing team and there is no place for the emotional“, explains Gaël Danic, who experienced the difficulties of integration into the Lyon locker room during his time in the Rhône (2013-2015). The ex-professional, who now comments on Stade Rennes matches for France Bleu Armorica, noted the “click” experienced by Terrier in Rennes between his first season last year and the 2021-2022 financial year.
“Rennes is a club with healthy pressure, explains Foor. The club wants to get results but the players have time. So it’s a perfect context for him.”. Gaël Danic agrees: “Rennes is a family club with high standards, that’s what Terrier needs“.
Well surrounded in the locker room, very close to Nayef Aguerd, Terrier also has the confidence of his trainer Bruno Génésio, his first coach in Lyon and especially Florian Maurice. The latter, who had brought him to OL, before recruiting him when he arrived in Rennes, is a privileged relay. Besides this favorable context, the striker is also “become a real professional on a daily basis“, according to Dumont.
A big fan of video games – he had told West France having been world number 1 in FIFA -, Terrier explained that he reduced his number of playing hours. “I changed my way of doing things a bit: I used to play a little late at night in front of the screens, it’s not the best thing. (…) Now, I prefer to do a small session in the afternoon to play calmly, and in the evening to rest and sleep earlier“, he had explained to France Blue in February.
Having reached maturity, Terrier therefore flourishes in the field. “Once he has acquired confidence, it goes very quickly with his qualities“, assures Pennacchio. Alongside Gaëtan Laborde, the Rennes n°7 still occupies the position of left winger, but plays the free electrons, to the point of being often present in the opposing area. “He proved to himself that he could be a great goalscorer“, emphasizes Danic.
20 – Martin Terrier has scored 20 goals in Ligue 1 this season, no Rennes player has scored more in a single exercise in the 21st century. Hungry. #RCSASRFC pic.twitter.com/SVqlEHST4b
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 20, 2022
“He became aware of his potential, which he now fully expresses and he has gained in maturity“, assured Génésio last weekend, after Rennes’ victory against Lorient (5-0) where he scored a real number 9 goal. With his 21 goals in Ligue 1, the striker has established himself as the one of the sure values of the championship. A new status to be confirmed next season.
What to aspire to see higher? “For the moment he is well in Rennes. He knows how to take advantage of where he is when it works. I’m not sure he wants to go elsewhere right now“, explains Mickaël Foor. Former international Espoirs (13 selections, 7 goals), can he dream of the France team? Génésio believes in it: “If he continues, he has the qualities to have an international future.“Martin Terrier can already boast of having passed a milestone, sporting and mental, this season.