Lorient-PSG: Jérôme Hergault, the former amateur, discovers Ligue 1 at 34

“It's a reward but not a dream in itself because I had never planned on it.

Considering where I come from, living from football was already beautiful, so Ligue 1… ”Soon to be 35 (he will have them in April), Jérôme Hergault, Lorient's side defender, is discovering the elite of football this season.

“I didn't go to a training center, at 22 I was still playing in the Honorary Division.

It takes, of course, a little luck but no one has ever given me a present, I always hung on.

"

Hergault, who grew up in Val-d'Oise and evolved in Saint-Leu, had followed his parents, driver father, laundress mother in a hospital environment, in Lavaur (Tarn).

"I had my little student life and I played in DH with Lavaur on weekends," says the man who has risen through the ranks each time thanks to the rise of his clubs: from N3 to National with Luzenac, in L2 with the Red Star and in L1 with Lorient.

“My first full-time contract was around 1000 euros with Luzenac.

I had just validated my studies, a Master 2 in law and health, and I said to myself why not give it a try to see?

But I was not at all destined for a career.

At the time, playing in CFA (N2) already seemed to me to be a good level.

"

With Luzenac, it ended badly

With Luzenac, under the direction of Christophe Pélissier who then signed him for Lorient in 2019, he was part of the great adventure that was suddenly ended by the refusal of the LFP to validate the accession of the small Ariège club in Ligue 2 to summer 2014. “You shouldn't live with resentment all your life, but I felt disgusted and sad to see this human adventure shattered.

What hurts the most are all the friends who then stayed behind, saw their careers stopped when we had won our climb on the field and we deserved to know the L2 together.

"

He had managed to bounce back in National, at the Red Star.

“It was already September.

Idriss Ech-Chergui, one of my teammates in Luzenac, knew President Haddad well.

He had told him that the club were looking for a full-back.

I myself took my phone to call Patrice Haddad.

I've never worked too much with agents… Football is quite closed, it works on networks.

But I think he was sensitive to the fact that I called him directly, it's rare and it showed my determination.

He held out his hand to me.

"

With the Red Star, he discovered Ligue 2 and therefore signed his first professional contract at the age of 29, in 2015. As then with AC Ajaccio, he flirted with a rise in Ligue 1. “With the Red Star, we finished 5th at one point, playing all season at Beauvais.

At home, it would have been different.

It is regret.

Then, at AC Ajaccio, there are the famous dams of 2018. We can think what we want about the incidents against Le Havre.

But, because of that, we had to face Toulouse without a team half and a first leg on neutral ground.

It was biased.

“The third attempt with Lorient was therefore the right one to finally move up to L1.

If he does not play a lot (6 games), he started the first leg at Parc des Princes.

In Lorient, he does not feel overwhelmed

“It was a nice nod to me, who am a Parisian at the base.

Most of my friends are PSG fans.

Two or three years ago, we were going to see the games together in the stands and it was weird to find myself on the pitch.

Discovering Ligue 1 with behind closed doors stadiums takes a bit of spice from me, but that evening the context really helped me.

If my friends and relatives had been in the stands with 40,000 spectators, I think that, there, I would have had more pressure.

Usually, Mbappé, I see him from my sofa, there I was able to really realize his speed.

"

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The former amateur, however, does not harbor any complex.

“Compared to Ligue 2, some teams play different football, the slightest error is exploited.

But I don't feel overwhelmed.

I am not ashamed to be a pure product of amateur football and I claim it.

I am not formatted.

Over the years, I have learned to manage myself by creating my own routine.

I just do a little more weight training.

But just because we have all the comforts and everything available does not mean that I am going to go for a massage every day.

I don't or no longer usually take a nap.

But that's not why I'm not serious because I know where I'm from.

My career just taught me to put things into perspective and gain height.

"