In recent days, René Girard, who arrived at Paris FC on January 6, has finally found his "home". An apartment located in the 14th arrondissement. "This is the first time in my life that I have lived in an apartment in the city," smiles the 65-year-old coach. When you come here, you have to keep a certain freedom, especially for a Provincial. Paris is not unknown to me but during the 10 years that I spent at DTN, I was in Cernay-la-Ville near Clairefontaine. Same thing when I was training Lille, we lived in a village near the Belgian border. I claim to be a country man. His haven of peace is located in Vauvert (Gard), in the house he had built in 1978, at the end of a quiet path. There he can enjoy a large field of olive trees. "I'm in love with him," he admits. But this year, I know I won't be picking the olives. I'll just eat them. There, I am 20 minutes from the sea, from the Camargue. I need nature and to breathe. Here in Paris, it's a bit like the splits. But I have the chance to do what I love so I can only be happy. I don't have a vital or nutritional need to train. The money, I have earned enough. You could say that there is a maso or megalo side but if I am there, it is out of personal need for football. It is the passionate side that prevails. Before leaving his retirement from Gard to "dive back, convinced by (his) exchanges with President Ferracci", the coach champion of France of L1 in 2012 with Montpellier, nevertheless thought at length. But the most difficult to convince was his wife. "I more or less promised him that I would stop after Morocco (he was removed from Wydad Casablanca in November 2018)," he admits. But we got married in 1974 and she knows me well. She realized that I was missing something and that it was better for me to let off steam on a field rather than staying around in circles at home. "
"I will always remain the old idiot who does not understand" always their helmets, their social networks "
So far, Madame Girard has been going back and forth. “I spent a lot of time at the center in Orly. The situation of the team and the discovery phase of the club require a total investment on my part. I was alone, I didn't necessarily want to, so that limited my field of action next to football. With his wife he nevertheless attended a few plays, including recently "10 years later" with Bruno Solo. "I like the theater," he explains. When I trained Lille, we came to Paris to see pieces. But it is on the ground that he feels best. “The beauty of football is that every day is different and there is something irrational. What I like is sharing and working with a group. If an old crouton like me can give them the right directions for their career, I would be happy. In Montpellier (where he was champion of France in 2012) with some, it heated, we went up to the coat rack (sic) but I had the satisfaction of having made them advance and progress. I learned to surf between generations, having trained young people in the France team, that makes you think. René Girard therefore knows how to adapt his audience. “I will always remain the old idiot who does not always understand their helmets, their social networks. But I have to take a step towards them because if you go against all that or you deprive them of it, you are dead. I'm just trying to show them that you shouldn't be overwhelmed. The day I say to myself, I'm fed up, they piss me off, there it will be better for me to stop. But the reality is also that I am 66 years old and that I may no longer have the strength. "
In the meantime, Girard, who had been very marked by the death of his sister in 2017, wants to take advantage and succeed his last (?) Challenge with the PFC where he signed for 2 and a half years. "I was stuck on labels, criticized my character, but I have nothing to prove. I am passionate but no one will make me sick for football. In all humility, when I look at my career, I do not have much to envy to some. "
Superstitious, he has swapped his tracksuit for jeans and a green sweater since the start of his team's winning streak (3). "But we're 17th so nothing is won yet. The only thing I miss here is popular support. I would like Charléty to be more full, it would be a good vitamin for the players because they deserve it. "He thus estimates:" that to take a 2nd Parisian club in L1 would be even stronger than to have been champion of France with Montpellier because one starts from still further ... "