He doesn't get upset when we talk about him as the least known coach in the elite. “It's because it's true, sighs Stéphane Jobard, 48, the technician from Dijon. I don't do this job to be someone important. I have other values. Starting with loyalty to a single club frequented since 1992, with the exception of a break from a season last year to assist Rudi Garcia at OM.
“I have known everything here: player, trainer, assistant and now coach. I didn't really plan on becoming number one. When I passed my diploma, it was in agreement with Olivier Dall'Oglio of whom I was the assistant. A graduate in 2019, he nevertheless left the Burgundian club to join Garcia, his first coach in Dijon in 2006. It was to leave to come back better.
"Last summer, President Olivier Delcourt asked me if I would be interested in putting on the costume of coach number 1," he recalls. We were several on his list. One day, he called me into his office and announced that I had been chosen. It is a great pride to manage the club of his city and his life. Afterwards, we're in Dijon: I'm not harassed in the street by requests for selfies. "
A privileged relationship with Garcia
His mission is to maintain the DFCO in Ligue 1. He chose to take up the challenge by producing game. This bias has, in particular, allowed his team to beat PSG (2-1) this season on the 12th day . "That day, all the stars were aligned in the sky for us," he recalls. Alas, PSG has progressed enormously since. It will be almost impossible to repeat the coup in the Coupe de France. "
But he decided to play. Still and always. “My influence clearly comes from Rudi Garcia, coward Jobard. The idea is to have possession of the ball as much as possible. He taught me a lot at this level. Besides, the friendly Garcia-Jobard axis remained solid. Before joining Lyon this fall, he indirectly helped Jobard. "Rudi used to text me a lot to advise me after the games," he reveals. It was a kind of personal coaching. »Who stopped on October 19 from Garcia's first game: a Lyon-Dijon (0-0)!
When football leaves him some free time, Jobard blows without moving from his home. “I have six children, from 7 to 21 years old. Believe me, to forget football, large families, it's perfect. "
