Said Chabane, president of the SCO of Angers, in police custody as part of a preliminary investigation opened on January 7, for "sexual harassment" and "aggravated sexual assault", is a perfect example of the self-employed entrepreneur who left nothing and who built his fortune alone.
Franco-Algerian 55 years old born in Algiers, Chabane pursued studies which led him from the École polytechnique d'Alger to the École des mines de Fontainebleau, on the other side of the Mediterranean.
Despite his CV, Chabane struggled to find stable employment. Thinking even to leave France to return to his homeland. Until an agrifood company calls upon its services to work on the label of a product - merguez - intended primarily for the Maghreb population of Île-de-France. He found his way, that of the charcuterie trade. In 1999, he bought a factory belonging to a group which had dismissed him a few years earlier, on the grounds that he was not "a man in the field" ...
800 employees and a turnover of 100 million euros
It is the cornerstone of the Cosnelle his business building, whose head office is located in the Sarthe, in La Ferté-Bernard. An entity which today employs 800 people for a turnover of 100 million euros. In 2011, he became the main shareholder of the SCO Angers club, then in L2, in which he now owns 93% of the shares. Advocating loyalty in a world of football where club presidents throw their coaches, Chabane has trusted the same coach, Stéphane Moulin, for 9 years.
Sportingly, the method works since the club seems permanently installed in Ligue 1. Economically, Chabane also stands out from many club presidents who lose money with football. He wins.
Last year, Angers ended the season with more than 17 million euros in net profit, almost half of its budget of 36 million, one of the lowest in the Elite. Said Chabane was able to pay more than five million dividends. The previous season, he had already pocketed 3.2 million.
His method is simple: buy quasi-strangers, harden them and resell them very expensive. Karl Toko-Ekambi, who arrived from Sochaux for a million in 2016, left Anjou in 2018 for Villarreal for 16 million euros. Nicolas Pepe, landed as a Poitiers lover in 2013 to play in reserve, left for Lille in 2017 for ten million euros. And Angers also touched 12 million euros in percentages linked to the sale of the Ivorian international to Arsenal this summer.
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