It is a song that has been echoing for many months in Rennes, the anthem that accompanied the club’s formidable year 2019 among supporters. “One day a long time ago, I fell crazy for you, don’t ask me how, it happened like this“says the song, to a tune borrowed from Liverpool fans. But how did it happen for those without Breton ties and parents who are supporters of the Red and Black? We interviewed five of them, who told us their history, their meeting with the club and their passion for Stade Rennais.Today meeting with Thomas, originally from Montpellier.
The transplant does not take with the MHSC
Thomas is 27 years old, he grew up in Larzac, an hour from Montpellier, where he now lives and works as a projectionist in a cinema. He explains the beginning of his passion: “I started to follow football around 16, 17, when Montpellier moved back to Ligue 1, in 2008. I was already following football but I didn’t have a team at heart. I have friends who started going to see Montpellier at La Mosson, but this team did not arch me, it did not make me want to support it. I started to watch the other teams, and I remember that at the time Rennes was 3rd in Ligue 1. I like Breton culture, Celtic culture, I liked the jersey, the players of the era like M’Vila or Asamaoah Gyan … And I said to myself: why not Rennes?“
– Thomas martin
“After that, my most vivid memory is the Europa League in 2011, continues the young man. We had Pitroipa, Féret, Montano, there was a great team, it played forward. It was not easy to follow football at the time, and I remember seeing all the games against Udinese, Celtic and Atletico Madrid and on TV. My other first memory is when I went to see them for the first time at La Mosson, we lost 2-0 on goals from Hilton and Camara.“
From Roazhon Park to Benito Villamarin
To follow his club, Thomas does not hesitate to take the road: “I travel a lot around Montpellier, I went to see the Stade Rennais in Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, Nîmes … Everything that is close to my home, where I can go quickly by car. From time to time, I try to take a vacation to go see matches in Rennes. I saw a dozen of them at Roazhon Park. I also travel to Europe: I went to Seville, Glasgow, the Stade de France for the final against Paris …“
– Thomas martin
Travel and visits to Roazhon Park which allowed him to meet the Red and Black community which welcomed him: “The supporters I meet, they find it cool that someone who has no connection with Brittany has fallen in love with the club. It’s nice, it allows you to open a discussion. I told my story to people in Seville, they told me what it was like to be able to see them every weekend … Rennes supporters are very open to the difference I find. I feel a bit Breton. The mentality of the south of France, of Montpellier, is not really my delirium. I prefer the good-natured spirit that we find in Rennes. It’s a great community, it was done easily.”
So, for Thomas the Montpellier, the love of Stade Rennais, it happened like that.