It was 1 a.m. on Sunday when red and blue smoke lit the sky over Aulnat airport (Puy-de-Dôme).
Nearly 300 supporters came to welcome the Clermont Foot players and celebrate their historic rise in Ligue 1. Better known for its rugby club or the Michelin factory, the city of Auvergne will host PSG or OM next season at the Gabriel stadium. -Montpied which will have to bring to the standards of the L1 (the town hall will invest 3 million euros).
But unlike some UFOs who have managed to reach the elite for 20 years and who have quickly fallen back (Arles-Avignon, Istres, Gazélec Ajaccio…), the rise of Clermont is not the result of chance.
VIDEO - Relive the arrival of @ClermontFoot players at Aulnat airport 🔥🌋🔴🔵 # ClermontEnLigue1 # ClermontFdhttps: //t.co/swmpmQWO0Y pic.twitter.com/EGhS05l01q
- France Bleu Pays d'Auvergne (@FBAuvergne) May 16, 2021
It rewards a patient process and a regularity.
Present in L2 since 2007, Clermont has finished 7 times in the Top 10 in 14 years and has always flirted with the podium in recent years (6th in 2018, 5th in 2020).
This rise also bears the paw of Pascal Gastien, who arrived in 2016 to lead the training center and who took over from Corinne Deacon in September 2017. At 57 years old, the former pro midfielder (Niort, OM…) will train for the first time in his career in L1.
"Switzerland and Auvergne are very similar"
Elected best L2 coach on Saturday at the UNFP trophies, he advocates a real offensive game project, based on movement and possession.
Trainer at heart, Gastien has shaped a workforce without big names and composed of players mainly recruited in L2 or even in the lower divisions.
His son Johan (33), a midfielder, is one of his base men.
In the past, Clermont has often allowed attackers to reveal themselves (Alessandrini, Hunou, Ajorque, Grbic…).
This is still the case this season, with Mohamed Bayo, a native of the city and trained at the club.
The 22-year-old Franco-Guinean finished top scorer in L2 with 22 goals and 7 assists.
Pascal Gastien, who advocates an attacking game, was elected best coach in Ligue 2 during the UNFP Trophies on Saturday.
LP / Icon Sport / Aude Alcover
With limited resources, the club has always known how to develop real know-how in recruiting. After the good father management of Claude Michy, president between 2005 and 2019, he also succeeded without hindrance in the era of football business with his takeover by the Zurich financier Ahmet Schaefer, 39, former advisor to Sepp Blatter at Fifa. Between the owner of Austria Lustenau (Austrian D2) and FC Vendsyssel FF (Danish D2) and Clermont, the graft took off perfectly, which did not seem to have been won at the start even if he often repeated that "Switzerland and Auvergne are very similar ”.
Schaefer was able to provide additional resources (the budget increased from 6.5 to 11 million euros), establish data, internationalize recruitment with the right hand of a former diplomat candidate for Fifa (Jérôme Champagne), a German recruiter (Ingo Winter) and a financier from Eastern France (Yannick Flavien), but without revolutionizing everything. If he only comes often for matches, he has complete confidence in his coach. “Style and quality of play were among the primary criteria that led us to choose Clermont. Pascal Gastien has this ability to highlight the hidden qualities of players. In contact with it, they become better, ”explained Schaefer, who broke the shell. “I cried for ten minutes, like a child. My wife too, I do not know how to explain it. It is done,I can not believe it. To think that Clermont Foot is in L1 is too much! "
