The scene takes place in 1982, sixteen years before the first world title of the Blues and thirty-six before the second. Didier Deschamps, 14, wears the captain’s armband for the Aquitaine selection. The future double world champion wins the minimal National Cup, the first row of a record as thick as the yearbook. On muddy ground, the teenager impresses with his sense of combat and his omnipresence. The Deschamps style is already there: not impressive at first glance, but essential from the second.
In the forum, recruiters and other managers of training centers do not miss a beat. One man in particular watches the young boy continue to fight as the referee indicates the way to the locker room. Raynald Denoueix then directs the new training center of FC Nantes, which the child from Bayonne will join a few months later. “It was striking. This characterized the good man, his mind and his personality. The fact of continuing to play in this quagmire. When we saw him on the ground, there was no hesitation ”, remembers the one who coached the Canaries during their last title, in 2001.
Football based on the science of movement, availability and simplicity
The French novel of the child of Bayonne begins on the grounds of Jonelière, where young shoots and professionals train under the leadership, respectively, of Denoueix, as well as a soon-to-be legendary coach, Jean-Claude Suaudeau. Two men who revive and perfect a local playing philosophy inherited from José Arribas, the coach with whom it all began in the 1960s, this football founded on the science of movement, availability and simplicity.
Aesthetics made in Loire-Atlantique
In two decades, these technicians – genius “poultry farmers” – shaped several generations of Canaries, wearing the famous yellow and green jersey. Nantes returned to national peaks and won three championship titles (1983, 1995 and 2001). It is at this school of “Nantes-style game” that the champion of pragmatism, coach Didier Deschamps, was introduced to the high level. This aestheticism made in Loire-Atlantique is as much idealized – very offensive champagne football – as the pragmatism of coach Deschamps – rigor and defensive solidity – is caricatured. But are they so irreconcilable?
You have 69.26% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
