Malagasy football has found his man. On the Big Island where this sport is almost a religion, the name of Nicolas Dupuis is on everyone's lips. The coach, who has just signed a four-year contract with the Malagasy Football Federation, will not only take care of the national team, but also develop the sport throughout the country. An immense hope on these lands among the poorest in the world, already excited by the dynamic that starts. "Mada" has just been nominated in three categories for the CAF Awards 2019 – including the best coach of the year for Nicolas Dupuis – and his national team will participate for the first time in the qualifications of the 2022 World Cup .
This wind of hope, it is the coach who made him get up since March 2017 he landed on the island. If the coach likes to remind that the success of the national team of Barea is a collective feat, the Malagasy make no mistake. The "Merci Dupuis" banners now adorn the stands at least as much as the famous "Alefa Barea" at which the whole country vibrated last summer during the African Cup of Nations (CAN).
In his career, September 9, 2018 is to mark a milestone. That evening, in Antananarivo, it's the end of the Senegal-Madagascar match. In front of the overheated stands, on the ground of the Mahamasina stadium, Aliou Cissé gesticulates. The coach of the Senegal team can not take it anymore. His team has just conceded an equalizer (2-2) in the qualifiers of the CAN against Barea, the tiny national team of Madagascar … Who would have thought?
"An iron hand in a velvet glove"
On the other side of the field, coach Nicolas Dupuis remains impassive. Face closed and arms crossed. What does he really think at this moment? "Good coach is one who knows how to surf on positive energies. It is necessary in all circumstances to be able to show to his players that one is serene ", he explains a year later, in front of an espresso. At this point in the match, however, Nicolas Dupuis knows he is attending the start of the soaring Barea. The reward of a hard work of two and a half years that this equalization comes to crown, because it is she who gave his team enough momentum to catapult itself to the round of 16. Huge feat for a first participation in the CAN.
" I call myself an iron fist in a velvet glove "he admits. This is confirmed by his players, his captain in mind. "His strong point is tactics, Anicet Abel analysis. And What I like about him is that I feel free on the field, free to play with my technique. But it has to be square. " The epic at the CAN was made of ups and downs, but the man managed to maintain the group's cohesion. " He is someone who has a lot of composure and mastery, abounds again Anicet Abel, freshly named captain of the zebus team, after the retirement of Faneva Andriatsima. Shouting too early victory does not look like him. "
When he recounts the game against Niger on 19 November, in the frame of the qualifiers of the CAN 2021, where Madagascar led 4 to 1 in the first period, the captain remembers these words of the coach. " The end result may change, but that's not what matters, he told us. In the locker room, at half-time, he pushed us to redouble our efforts. No way to relax! " But make no mistake, under this ice surface, the man is animated by the sacred fire and this incandescence can arrive on the surface as that day … "The last half in Niger, I really had to get in the towers to get the guys back afloat"confirms the coach.
"An exceptional pool"
N ° 1 on the island, the man holds the position of coach with that of national technical director and also gives conferences on coaching. It is therefore difficult to combine such responsibilities with his coaching position at Fleury FC, which he has logically left. "I promised the President of the Republic (Andry Rajoelina) to be present on the island. We share a lot, him and me. We have the same love of the balloon. And there is a lot of potential to develop here: championships for young people, for girls … Madagascar is an exceptional breeding ground ", chained the one who has just taken up residence in Antananarivo with his wife. now "I spend three weeks in Madagascar and one week in France because I have obligations as a consultant to Canal +", says he.
In return, its popularity is already very high because, as Dax points out, a Barea player, "lpeople love him because he is the first to have given the national team that he is attached visibly in Madagascar. " Nothing predestined yet this native of the Allier, doctoral student in science and technology of physical activities and sports (Staps) and teacher in another life, to fall in love with this country. " I come from a modest family, far from the sports world, says Nicolas Dupuis. Yet the one who has been judoka in addition to being a footballer recognizes that the sport has always been " a pillar " from his life to becoming gradually " the center ".
