“We will have to continue to progress because the level will rise,” confides the Stade Brestois coach.

After clinching an unexpected 3rd place in Ligue 1, Stade Brestois found itself automatically qualified for the next Champions League. The coach of the Finistère club, Éric Roy, confided to franceinfo his pride and his caution regarding the challenge that lies ahead.

On May 19, 2024, the historic qualification of the Brest football team in the Champions League brings the jubilation of the supporters into the streets. After a 3-0 victory in Toulouse, the players of Stade Brestois climb onto the podium of Ligue 1 and their coach Éric Roy exults: “What a pleasure, what happiness, I love these players !” A historic evening and season for the Reds and Whites: “What we are experiencing is exceptionaldescribes the coach, the emotions we experienced throughout the year and now, as a highlight, this finale, it’s incredible.”

A year ago, the Breton club was still playing to stay in Ligue 1. It will now face the big teams of Europe from September. In January 2023, the club’s management entrusted the team to Éric Roy for a rescue operation. After qualifying for the European Cup and before qualifying for the Champions League, he was named best Ligue 1 coach for the 2023-2024 season by his peers. “I think we must always maintain this humility… We constantly live in criticism”he tempers, recalling that one can go from a low level to a very high level, then go back down just as easily after a few bad results.

The 56-year-old coach from Nice, who has also been a player, marketing director and football consultant, remains modest in the face of this new spotlight. He remembers the collective emotion and the challenges that await the club after qualifying for the most prestigious of competitions. “Being directly qualified for the Champions League was very, very strong, it’s difficult to describe, and it’s something that we will all remember individually afterwards.”the coach is pleased. He does not hide the fact that the team will change from now on, with players coming and others moving, like Lilian Brassier left to join OM. “Inevitably in a career, the years pass, he describes, The players leave, but somewhere it’s something that will bind us for life. And it’s true that we do this job for this kind of emotion.”

This new exhibition for Stade Brestois has made “become aware” to the players for their qualities and their value, but it is now a question for Eric Roy of preparing for a new season “from all dangers”. The Champions League matches must be approached in a more physically and psychologically demanding way: “We will have to continue to progress because the level will rise”he sums up.

The difficulty is to evolve in a new court with a budget which remains that of a small club: “Of course, many of the players we call are interested in coming to us.explains Eric Roy, but the problem is that we always have less money than the others. Over the year, the club will have higher income because there is income from the Champions League, but from next year, it will certainly be over. So there is no desire to put ourselves in danger in the following years.”

Eric Roy will therefore devote himself wholeheartedly in the next season, “which promises to be exciting but certainly very tiring too.” The resumption of the championship at home for Brest will be on Saturday August 17, against Marseille.