After several days of uncertainty, linked to the financial agreement of the owner of the King Street club, Alain Roche finally received a positive response on Monday. At the same time as the one announcing, as planned, the arrival of Jean-Louis Gasset, 66, on the bench of the Girondins to replace Paulo Sousa. The former PSG defender has officially become the new director of football for the Girondins de Bordeaux. He succeeds the Spaniard Eduardo Macia "resigned" at the end of July by Frédéric Longuépée.
Eighteen years after ending his career because of recurring ankle injuries after two last seasons at the Girondins, Alain Roche, 52, returns to the club of his first love. "A good thing for the club" tweeted one of the leaders of the Ultramarines Florian Brunet.
The new boss of the sports sector - a position he also held for ten years in the Parisian club - will have the heavy task of deeply restructuring a fallow club from young people to professionals. He has the legitimacy, being one of the emblematic players of the Bordeaux club from his training center.
"Give back to the club everything that has brought it"
Alain Roche was born in Brive on October 14, 1967 for civil status and in Girondins for the high level on November 15, 1985. That day, in the great Bordeaux, semi-finalist of the European Cup of champion clubs six months earlier, Alain Roche came into play in place of Alain Giresse during a home meeting against Brest.
He said his emotion again recently: “We were leading 3-0, so it was easier. Aimé Jacquet told me to have confidence in myself and to have fun. I even scored a goal with my left foot. This is the first of his 131 matches played with the Girondins from 1985 to 1989, with the key to his first titles: a Coupe de France in 1986 and the cup-championship double in 1987. The first of two consecutive victories against the 'OM in the final of the Coupe de France thanks to a magnificent lob by Alain Giresse at the end of the extension is a memory for eternity. In the spring of 1986, Alain Roche was only 19 years old.
“It's my fondest memory in the Girondins, he recently confided to Sud-Ouest. I remember the return by train, the welcoming of the supporters and the reception at the town hall with this cup that all Bordeaux expected. »In 2000, eleven years after his departure, Alain Roche returned for a final lap. Before hanging up his crampons on a victory in the Coupe de la Ligue in April 2002. Almost twenty years later, he is back, in costume this time, ready, as a relative underlines it, to "give back to the club all that he needs. provided ".