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Rugby: Gonzalo Quesada's return to Stade Français was written

2020-06-06T20:25:13.328Z


The official return of the Argentinian to a club of which he was the manager, and with which he has always had a special relationship,


Suddenly, fans of the Stade Français plunged back five years. Friday, the announcement of the return of Gonzalo Quesada as manager of the Parisian club revived the memory of the fourteenth title of champion of France, the last to date, obtained by the Pink Soldiers in 2015. The Argentinian was at work, as in 2017 during the coronation in the European Challenge.

Here he is again, a new Parisian, with a two-year contract (+1 optional) as manager, and it is ultimately anything but a surprise. As of last September, as we wrote, his name was circulating to replace the South African Heyneke Meyer while the club, penultimate of the Top 14, was plunged into a results crisis. It was finally decided, two months later, to entrust the team to a binomial composed of Laurent Sempéré and Julien Arias for the end of the season, truncated due to the health crisis.

The very real contacts with Gonzalo Quesada date back to this period. The former scrum or back half of the Pumas has always kept close to the Stade Français, where he was a player (2004-2005) then coach (2013-2017). "In my head, I did not leave definitively because I really like France, Paris and the life I have led here," he said in our columns in 2018.

On the other hand, Thomas Lombard, the club's general manager, has never made any secret that he wanted to bring experience to the staff, favoring a French-speaking profile (to avoid repeating the Meyer fiasco) and knowing the Top 14. “My mission is to clarify the DNA of the Stade Français. It evokes a lot of things at once, it's Max Guazzini, it's pink… ”he also confided in December.

Expected end of June

Gonzalo Quesada, 46, has anticipated his return due to the situation of Super Rugby, a competition in which the Jaguares franchise takes part, which he has headed for two years. He also explained it Friday at a virtual conference of the UAR, the Argentine Federation. "Not long ago, people from the UAR called me, it was a clear, transparent, unfiltered speech: for the months to come, because of the uncertainty that hangs over Super Rugby (the franchise Argentine will no longer be able to play this season because of the coronavirus), I was not going to have a role, a precise objective before long. They left me the choice to continue or not to continue. "

His arrival in Paris is expected at the end of June. He will find Laurent Sempéré and Julien Arias there, still in the staff and with whom he had celebrated the title of 2015. But also Christophe Moni, his former teammate at the Stade Français who arrives at the club as a team manager. It's the return of the elders…

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2020-06-06

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