A giant hyphen.
2.03 m long, and stretching over more than thirty-five years.
A colossal framework, built in the shadow of the stars that it has always brought to light and anchored in the depths of this sky and white soil with ancestral ramifications.
Patrick Serrière is the link between ages, eras, the multiple facets of Racing, which hosts Toulon this Sunday evening (9 p.m., Canal +), during a late Top 14 match between two top names.
The man-mountain was the captain of the champions of France 1990, second line both aerial and devoted to obscure tasks, which left the glory and the glitter to the magicians of showbiz, three-quarters of Lafond, Mesnel, Blanc, Rousset, Guillard.
At the age of 60, he is now the general manager of the Ile-de-France club, in charge of all administrative matters and relay of President Jacky Lorenzetti to the institutions.
“I started in September 2018, and I hesitated for a long time, but Jacky finally convinced me,” says Patrick Serrière.
I had the weakness to accept.
"
"Patrick is the soul of the club"
Before him, the president had just exhausted six directors in eight years.
Something to think about.
“Jacky contacted me very quickly after taking over the club,” says Serrière.
He wanted the elders to play a role.
In 2008, I launched the
Ciel et Blanc
association
, which brings together players from all eras, it has 450 members and I am still its president.
The fiber has always been there.
It remained to reactivate it.
“Jacky turned him around for a while,” explains Eric Blanc, who, with his friend Franck Mesnel, had sold the club in 2006 to Lorenzetti.
He first observed Patrick, very active and dedicated.
He took ten years to achieve his goals.
You have to manage to live with Jacky, a builder who has an eye on everything.
Patrick knows how to position himself and especially Jacky knows that he can have complete confidence in him.
Patrick is the soul of the club, he will always be loyal to him.
»Loyalty.
The word is out.
It is the common thread of his career, both atypical and linear.
His starting point is in Montceaux-lès-Meaux in Seine-et-Marne where he grew up and where he still lives.
“I played football until I was 18, then one day I found myself in team 2 and I lost half of my friends,” recalls Serrière.
I went to see rugby, in the Coulommiers club a few kilometers away.
It was a revelation.
I found a sport more related to my size, in which I could use 80% of my body.
I stayed for three years and was contacted by Racing.
"He landed in Colombes at 21, badly trimmed, and started in team B alongside recruits Jean-Pierre Rives and Robert Paparemborde, hit with a red license as was customary at the time when we changed club and that this did not please the federal government.
"He established himself naturally as a leader"
“When I saw this giant come forward who was catching the balloons with both hands in touch, I started to worry, smiles Michel Tachdjian, who has formed with him one of the best second-line teams in France.
He had a lot to learn.
It went very quickly.
He naturally established himself as a chef and he became a captain.
He had to drive two hours to come to training, but I never saw him arrive late, even when he was sick.
We had a bite to eat in the evening and he left at 11:30 p.m.
"
"I was rushing to be on time, the emergency lane of the highway knows me well," laughs Serrière.
The young man took over the metal processing business from his father, a hundred employees.
His days are busy.
They are just as important today.
“I sold the company in 2000 to work alone, then when Jacky recruited me, I found an agreement with him, he underlines.
I arrive at Plessis-Robinson
(Editor's note: club headquarters in Hauts-de-Seine)
at six in the morning.
I leave around 3pm to 4pm to avoid traffic jams and then I work from home.
"
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Married, father of two grown children, Patrick Serrière, who bought a holiday home in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) has never left Seine-et-Marne.
Neither Sky and White.
“Jacky knows that I will never leave for a team other than Racing.
I am the man of one club.
"