Leonardo, the sporting director of PSG, reminded him again, this Tuesday, November 10, during his exchange with supporters on social networks: the future move of the training and training center of Paris Saint-Germain to Poissy ( Yvelines) will mark a major development for the capital club.
Until 2022, the daily newspaper of Thomas Tuchel and his troops remains attached to the Camp des Loges, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines).
But for Arnaud Péricard, the mayor (DVD) of the city, there was no question of waiting for this departure to look in the rearview mirror.
Especially at a time when PSG is celebrating its 50 years.
So, at the start of the year, he turned to journalist Arnaud Hermant, a follower of PSG since 2002, first for Le Parisien - Today in France and then for L'Equipe, in order to produce a book that 'inscribed in the context of this anniversary but which also leaves a mark for its city.
This is how “In the history of the Loges camp” (Editions Braquage, 160 p., 30 euros) was born, a magnificent book, richly illustrated and available since November 8.
But if, as Arnaud Péricard emphasizes in the preface, “the Loges camp will remain for generations of players the place of“ their ”PSG”, this vast space “is not only Paris Saint-Germain”: “it is is the whole point of Arnaud Hermant's book: telling us about the 170 years of this clearing in the Saint-Germain national forest.
"
In the history of Camp des Loges is out today
We of course talk about @PSG_inside but also @ equipedefrance
Available in click & collect
Order it at your favorite bookseller
A beautiful book to offer to all sports lovers (s) #psg #campdesloges #librairiesouvertes pic.twitter.com/jaTUgDtety
- Romain Lejeune (@R_Lejeune) November 9, 2020
Throughout the 160 pages, it is a plunge into the history of this famous space of Yvelines that is offered to us, during which we meet many actors and stars of French sport.
Football, but also athletics and rugby ...
This is how we (re) discover Michel Platini's first steps with the France team.
In March 1976, Clairefontaine did not exist and the Blues of the new coach Michel Hidalgo had taken up residence to prepare a meeting against Czechoslovakia at the Cazaudehore hotel-restaurant, while training on the grounds of PSG.
The history of the Blues at the Camp des Loges ended in February 1979 after a night out by Didier Six, which ended in a car accident with a police commissioner.
We then meet the German selection installed in the same place during the 1984 Euro. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had awarded a distinction to the top scorer in a minimal tournament organized by PSG at the Georges-Lefèvre stadium.
A stadium whose attendance record dates back to March 9, 1969: 4,593 spectators attended the eighth Coupe de France, Stade Germanois - Evreux (2-1).
Sports club, Saint-Germain also welcomes athletes like Bruno Marie-Rose, world record holder in the 4 x 100 m in 1990. Within the West 78 Athletic Club, he occasionally treads the ashy track of the Loges camp.
There he will meet Kevin Smith, son of Tommie, the 1968 Olympic champion in the 200m in Mexico City who raised a gloved fist on the podium to protest against the racism and exclusion suffered by African Americans in the United States.
PSG Express
The essential newsletter for Parisian supporters
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
The former international Franck Mesnel, whose rugby area at the Camp des Loges bears the name, made his debut in minimal before going to Racing at 24.
His testimony is also fascinating: “We parked in the same parking lot as PSG players like Luis Fernandez, he recalls.
But not with the same cars!
".
Racingman Boris Palu also made his class there.
"Land in the Middle Ages"
In this history of the Lodge camp, the many testimonies (Jean Djorkaeff, Luis Fernandez, Edouard Cissé, Bernard Lama, Thiago Motta, Edvin Murati, Adrien Rabiot, Presnel Kimpembe ...) illustrate the strong links between the Lodge camp and its actors.
The book is also teeming with anecdotes such as the title of best player in the under 13 tournament received in 1998 by… Mathieu Valbuena.
Or the taste displayed by Carlo Ancelotti for the rum baba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the Cazaudehore broccoli.
The history of the Stade Saint-Germanois and the creation of PSG is naturally in the spotlight.
The evolution of the club's training center also, as the investment of the various shareholders.
The Parisian training center, which housed Fernandez, Anelka, Kimpembe Coman, Rabiot and many others, constitutes an essential chapter.
Here too, times have changed.
François Gil, former head of pre-training, remembers on his arrival in 1999, “earthen sites from the Middle Ages”.
But the Lodge camp is now looking to the future. After the departure of the pro men's team, the PSG women will recover the facilities. Then will come the time for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Twenty million euros of work co-financed by the city, the departmental council and the PSG are planned for the Georges-Lefèvre stadium, where the Saint-Germain HC plays, l one of the largest French clubs, can accommodate the preparation of field hockey teams. This is also the Camp des Loges.