FC Nantes wants to reconnect with its glorious history, Saturday May 7. The Canaries face OGC Nice in the Coupe de France final, at the Stade de France, to hope to bring back a fourth trophy for the club, the first for more than twenty years. Now involved in a project to take over the club, Mickaël Landreau was the captain of the last Nantes team crowned in the competition, against Calais in 2000. He confided in the microphone of the program “Tout le sport”.
“All sports”: Twenty-two years later, do people still talk to you about this image with your opponent Réginald Becque, when you lifted the cup together?
Mickael Landreau: I hear about it very often. It is an emblematic image of French football, in a competition filled with history which brings together amateur football and professional football. It is an extraordinary symbol, a moment of spontaneity. I did not know him. It’s even nicer to say to yourself that he’s a good person with whom I still have relations. The course of Calais was incredible, which had marked the spirit of the French. I think football should be a vector of emotions and everything came together that day.
Since their victory in the league in 2001, FC Nantes has not won anything. Do you feel a form of nostalgia?
I do not know. It is true that FC Nantes is a historic club, which has regularly won trophies in its life. There, it can happen, there is a Coupe de France to play. This is a wonderful opportunity to write a new page. But the most important thing for the players is the match, that they manage to focus on their strengths, on being a compact team, being strong in quick attack, and believing in it, everything simply. We must not waste energy on anything that risks taking them out of the game. They will have time to party and enjoy it for a lifetime.
You are part of the executives of the Nantes collective on the initiative of a project to take over the club in the months to come. Where are you ?
We are living a great adventure. We have made good progress, with a very good fundraising of 7.5 million euros. We have also launched a crowdfunding popular, in order to allow everyone to be able to experience this shareholder adventure. We are continuing to work on expanding this shareholding. We will go see Waldemar Kita [le président du FC Nantes] when we are ready. The objective is to prepare to be able to make an offer that is consistent. We want to set up a real substantive project. What matters to us is to build something that corresponds to the values that we embody.