Reserve grant: What does Pierre Corno bring to Maccabi Haifa?

Despite a serious injury, crises and a frustrating transition between four reserve teams, Pierre Corno struggled and built a career for himself from below.

After "handing out candy" on Saturday and impressing in Oviedo, the left-back gained initial recognition in his native France and opted for a tempting offer from Israel.

Will the progress continue at Maccabi Haifa as well?

Tomer Yitzhak

03/07/2022

Sunday, 03 July 2022, 14:30

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In the summer of 2021, Maccabi Haifa negotiated with Juanjo Nieto.

Oviedo's right-back was marked as the preferred candidate to take the place of Ernest Mabuka and the Greens enlisted the help of other Spaniards who played in Israel to try to persuade him to come, but Nieto preferred to stay in his country, signing for Almeria and celebrating promotion to La Liga with him.

Ryan Strain was brought in and quickly disappeared, and Mikael Alphonse also left no significant mark.

A year has passed and once again the Israeli champion is keeping an eye on a defender from Oviedo who is experiencing progress with Coco Sigenda, the former star of Athletic Bilbao who also wore the Spanish national team uniform.

This time the need was on the left side, and this time the deal was also more convenient, despite the fact that last year Nieto was a free agent while Pierre Corno required negotiations with Oviedo.

Simply because the Frenchman felt it was the right time to change the atmosphere.

So who is the fresh reinforcement of Maccabi Haifa?

Wanted to change the atmosphere.

Pierre Corno in Oviedo uniform (Photo: GettyImages, Alex Caparros)

Pierre Corno was born in the city of Avignon in the south of France.

An hour and a quarter away is Montpellier, whose academy has accepted the basics of the game and tried to pave its way towards a professional career at a club that celebrated a historic championship in 2012.

Corno generally developed as a stopper in the youth team and admired Sergio Ramos, but just before the age of 17 he suffered a serious injury that sidelined him for eight months and changed all plans.

While some of his teammates began to get opportunities in the senior team, Corno was required to undergo lengthy rehabilitation and returned to practice only at the end of the 2013/14 season.

A season later he also started playing as a defender in the reserve team that was relegated and realized that the dream of wearing the senior uniform would no longer come true.

The move to Dijon was also to no avail and his only appearance in the first team was in a warm-up game against Sunderland.

The road to the reserve was short and in the fifth division, even if you are a captain, it is difficult to make a living from football or fantasize about a future in the industry.

The tests that saved his career.

Pierre Corno in Mallorca uniform (Photo: Official Website, Mallorca)

At the age of 20, Corno had to recalculate a route.

"I am only happy if I win," he clarified at the time.

"If I lose, I'm depressed."

The amateur league had too many losses, so to break free from the black bile and save his career, Corno went to auditions in Mallorca which was in crisis after being relegated to the third division in Spain.

Coach Vicente Moreno was impressed and approved signing him to a three-year contract, but soon the defender found himself in the same familiar place: the reserve team.

He won only once to wear the first team uniform when he completed 120 minutes in a loss to Leida on penalties in the Copa del Rey, while in reserve he made 29 appearances.

In the summer of 2018, when Mallorca acquired the Spanish striker known as Stoichkov from Linensa for 350,000 euros ahead of her return to the sub-league, she also added Korno on loan as part of the deal.

The Frenchman finally got a chance in the senior team, even if it was in the third division.

Corno completed a full season in the table center team, experienced ups and downs and gained experience,

The team from Palma has just completed another promotion and was looking for a boost that would suit La Liga.

Corno was sent this time on loan at Oviedo and once again found himself in the reserve group called Vetosta.

But this time there was a turn in the plot.

In the middle of the 2019/20 season, after 20 games during which he also scored the only goal of his career, Mallorca realized that the defender was stuck in a non-competitive reserve team, stopped the contract with Oviedo and loaned him to Ibiza which was then battling for a sub-league ticket.

Corno immediately stood out, adding speed and brilliance to the left side of Ibiza and she was on the safe path to league promotion.

But then came the corona.

The games were only renewed in mid-July and Ibiza parted ways with the dream of promotion in the first stage of the playoffs, but Corno was no longer there.

The loan ended even before that and so did the contract in Mallorca.

Corno was left without a team, but with enough patience.

Believed in Korno despite the stuttering start.

Coco Sigenda (Photo: Reuters)

Offers from the third division were plentiful, but the Frenchman wanted to move on.

This opportunity was given to him by Sabaday, who unlike Ibiza made it to the playoffs and qualified for the second division.

The team from Catalonia fought for their lives from the first moment and coach Antonio Hidalgo changed methods.

After an injury and also a period of slight adaptation, Corno had an important part in his lineup.

"I learned to play on both a four and five defensive line," the defender explained, although his good moments were 3-4-2-1, with three brakes behind.

"He's handing out candies," enthused Sabaday of the sharp lifts of Corno, who provided six cooks and scorched the left line.

He excelled mainly in offensive operations and finished the season with the best one-on-one figures in the team and among the leaders in the league, but also with two dismissals and nine yellow cards.

The final chord was jarring when Sabaday failed to survive and Korno was injured in the 25th minute of the last round and the pitch sold down in tears, but this season proved he is fit for the second division and deserves to advance just like Stoichkov, the same striker he was part of his trade in Mallorca and now Played alongside him.

Impressed by his ability was former midfielder Ruben Rice, who returned to Oviedo as sporting director following the suicide of Frennes Arnau in May 2001. The first player Rice signed was Corno.

The Frenchman became a free agent following the relegation of Sabaday and won a return to Oviedo from the front door, with a two-year contract as the team's senior left-back.

The hard work paid off.

In this case, too, there was a sprain in the early stages and fans doubted his suitability, especially in light of defensive defects he showed and the unwise use of aggression - again nine reds and at the end of the season also red in the 89th minute in the critical loss to Las Palmas that ultimately prevented a playoff ticket.

But Sigenda trusted him and with his help everyone saw the improvement from game to game.

The measured lifts continued to be the strong side, even though he finished the season at Oviedo with just three assists, and the collaboration with Burja Sanchez (mentioned earlier this month as a candidate for Maccabi Tel Aviv) in the left wing made Oviedo fans lick their fingers.

Corno squeezed more offenses than any other player on the team, presented impressive offensive data and suddenly aroused interest in his homeland as well.

Quality levels and good dribbling ability.

Pierre Corno in Saturday uniform (Photo: GettyImages, Alex Caparros)

Saint-Etienne sent former captain Louis Fran to follow Corno in Oviedo and planned to make a bid if she survived in the Premier League.

Immigrants Toulouse and Auxerre were also in the picture (each at a different time) and in France they wondered if it was possible to build on a defender who had never played in the top league and in fact did not know local football beyond the level of reserve teams.

In Spain, Granada came up as an option to upgrade, but it also dropped in the league and the interest from Werder Bremen and even Olympiacos, Maccabi Haifa's rival in the second round of the Champions League qualifiers, did not mature into anything concrete.

The Greens were the ones who hurried to open negotiations with Oviedo who is in the process of a creditors' settlement, and despite the leaked photo incident, they managed to close in front of the new sports director Tito Blanco an agreed outline of the season fee (after which the player is also free). Respected for the benefit of its creditors.

They get a diverse player (can man all positions on the left line and as mentioned started his way as a brake), fast and technical who likes to work hard, experiences injury and crises and shows a graph of progress in each of the last three seasons.

His style should suit mainly a wide striker of the type of Franzi Piero, who signed immediately after him, while on the other side Daniel Sundgren will have to balance him at the level of experience as well.

As mentioned, the 25-year-old Korno has never played in a European factory or in a senior league.

In his resume a total of two years in the second division in Spain, and in both clubs testified that he needed a certain adjustment time.

Now he will have to deal with a new country, a completely foreign language and other expectations - as a procurement player who is supposed to upgrade a position in which there is a solution at the local level.

Here at least there is no reserve group.

The question is whether there will be patience.

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