Your career, you started it in Montpellier, under the orders of Michel Mézy: one of the faces that you will cross with pleasure, this Saturday?
Michel Mezy? He pulled my ears, a few times. At the time, I was a very young player, a very young goalkeeper. I could count on his support. I had times that weren’t always easy, but I was lucky to have a coach who liked me and a very family-oriented club that loved its young players. It was therefore quite fantastic to have the foot in the stirrup in such conditions.
Thanks to whom or what did you land in Montpellier in 1997?
At the root of all this is Ghislain Printant and Monsieur Bonnet, director of the training center at the time, who recruited me. I was under contract, I was fifteen and I was in the France team, but I was playing in Dunkirk, which at the time fell to National and lost pro status. And Montpellier was looking for a young goalkeeper to possibly turn professional two or three years later. These are the two people who meant a lot to me. President Nicollin met my parents. And for the little anecdote, he said to them: “I don’t know if he will turn pro, but when he comes to me, he will have the baccalaureate“. By saying that, he had won the heart of my dad and my mom.. They immediately put me there to follow a professional career, but above all to get the baccalaureate.
And you got it?
And I got it. And President Nicollin, as always with a lot of humanity and heartthe day I signed pro, he didn’t call my parents, but the day I got the baccalaureate, he called my mom to tell her: you saw Madame, I promised you that he would have it and he had it!
I had it some time ago. I did a tournament near Lyon, I invited the Lyon team, he slept at home. He introduced himself to me, he said to me: do you know whose son I am? We had a good chat, it was really nice.
On the other hand, you will find a former partner: Jordan Ferri, who started in Ligue 1 in Lyon, while you were guarding the cage?
He is someone I greatly appreciate, we still have some contacts. He was an atypical player. In Lyon, he was the one who recovered the balls, who had the thankless role. While in Lyon, we like the beautiful game, we like to pass, score goals. He was destined to do something else, with this role of sentinel, of recuperator. And it has evolved a lot, because here, I’m leaving the video, we watched them a little bit, and Jo is still the guardian of Montpellier’s game. It has a lot to do with the way of playing, of bringing out the balls. He was a very appreciated person with us, whom we saw emerge and who knew how to make his mark among very talented players and I am very happy for him.
Both teams are struggling, it’s an important game, especially since Lyon are still aiming for Europe, right?
Yes, we are coming off a defeat in Brest which hurt us a lot. We are keen to reconnect with victory (against Montpellier) so that we can still hope in the race for Europe. Afterwards, we know this Montpellier team, and we have in mind the history against this team. I am in a good position to know that. I know it’s a match that means a lot to Laurent Nicollin and to the club.. They like to come and annoy Lyon. We will be ready, we will try to do what it takes to win. But we know it will be complicated.
You know, in fact, the close and fraternal relationship between Lyon and Montpellier.
Yes, because the president (Louis Nicollin) was a big supporter of OL, from Lyon himself, he went to the traves of Gerland at the time. And inevitably, when he became president of Montpellier, he made it a point of honor to win against Lyon. There is therefore closeness between the Nicollin family and President Aulas. But you know it, we are in the professional world, and once the whistle blows, there will be no more friendship for 90 minutes.
You have a great goalkeeper in Lyon, but what is your view on that of MHSC, Jonas Omlin?
I was there the day he arrived! I had come to spend a few days in the south of France, and I saw Jonas Omlin arrive at the same hotel as the one where I was that day. We have discussed. He was very happy. And it was a big relief for Michel Der Zakarian to see him arrive. I like it a lot, he is a goalkeeper who is dynamic, who takes risks in his kicking game. He is often under pressure in the ball recovery, and I think he is doing very, very well. He has a lot of responsibility in the construction of the game. It doesn’t take away that he is decisive, that he makes a lot of saves. I saw some stats. It’s a team that takes a lot of hits, and yet it’s not the last defense, that means it has a lot to do with it. He is omnipresent. The only negative point is that I find him a little injured, too often for my taste. This is what he must influence. For the rest, I find a lot of qualities in him. A good aerial game, authoritarian, a lot of character. I really like it.
In Montpellier, Dimitry Bertaud is number two. You have been. Is it more complicated, with this costume, to convince that one can become number one in his club?
First, I still emphasize that Montpellier is a machine for making goalkeepers. Number two, you have to constantly show off, to get some game time, to be thought of when number one might leave. This boy, I think he’s on the rise. I saw him play at the start of the season, he made a strong impression on me. When he was in the national team too. I find a lot of qualities in him.. And then, I constantly hear this debate on the size, on the fact of being close to two meters to play. You know, I have one 1.84m in the cage, and he’s bouncing. So I wish him to have the same career. I don’t find it unacceptable, on the contrary. I really like this goalkeeper, he’s a youngster. And if Jean-Yves Hours felt that he had the potential, I wish him all the happiness and that he has a great and long career as a starter.
- 100% Paillade: full program and interview with Rémy Vercoutre, to be listened to again on France Bleu Hérault.