The RCT, his life, his work … his heartbreak
14 seasons spent at the head of a club, it wears out! In his latest book, which comes out this Thursday, Mourad Boudjellal looks back on his long Toulon epic. Three titles of European champion, a title of champion of France, sixteen world champions attracted in his nets, “the atypical mountebank who does not take anything seriously”, dixit himself, wishes to recall that he put Toulon on the roof of Europe.
His distant relations with the players, whom he regrets moreover, those more intimate with some of his coaches – Bernard Laporte, Philippe Saint-André, Fabien Galthié and many others… Mourad Boudjellal lifts the veil on the president than it was. At the same time addicted to this game which unleashes the crowds on the harbor, but above all addicted to its management, sometimes excessively.
Beyond his successes, he also gives himself up, with an open heart, on his separation from the RCT. “A bitter end”, according to him. “My story with the RCT is over. I will not return to headquarters, and maybe I will not set foot in Mayol again. I have lived what I had to live,” he wrote.
But the end of this romance did not only have bad sides. “Until then, from the open eye, everything revolved around the matches. I put myself in impossible states, the pressure climbed, I had itching following the meetings, redness appeared, to the point that I consulted a dermatologist […] Now, I watch the game quietly from home and it’s quite pleasant. What a relief, what a joy to no longer undergo the stress of the matches “, he breathes.
By the way, the “king of the harbor” lets go by recounting his painful transfer of power to Bernard Lemaître with whom his links have deeply deteriorated. He nevertheless leaves him the fruit of his labor, his inheritance in short, his empire. “It is first of all thanks to me that Toulon remains and will remain an essential club,” he recalls with all the modesty that characterizes it.
In his work, Mourad Boudjellal also paints the picture of his successor: an ambitious octogenarian, extremely wealthy and competent but who does not “have that spectacle dimension which makes the public dream”. Will it be “Toulon compatible”?
Shenanigans and company
In a chapter entitled “framing-overflows on the salary cap”, the troublemaker of the Ovalie has fun revealing some of the shenanigans that revolve around French rugby. And more precisely the many ways to get around the famous salary cap. “I chipped away at the salary cap for ten years. If the richest clubs get around it, I tried to optimize it, without crossing the red line”, he begins before detailing his secret boot: “A system of bonuses for results which do not enter the annual wage bill and which has made the authorities mad”.
The Toulon president paid his stars with great blows of tens of thousands of euros in the event of finals or titles. And authorities took too long to react to the malice of the Var. But this system is only valid in the event of results. Mourad Boudjellal paid him at his expense.
From oval ball to round ball
And then finally, Mourad Boudjellal evokes his third life which is looming… in football. His abortive takeover of Sporting club Toulon (National 2 club), AS Cannes’ proposal, Athletico Marseille’s project, but above all his dream of repurchasing OM touched down … he details his last months tumultuous.
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The press conference organized by the Sporting Club de Toulon in June 2020
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Le Toulonnais tells how the pharaonic project of a powerful Franco-Tunisian businessman is built on a Whatsapp group with a handful of influential men, able to unlock state and private funds from the Middle East to afford the Olympic from Marseille.
In the last pages, Mourad Boudjellal assumes his desire to follow in the footsteps of Bernard Tapie, former Marseille president, whom he idolizes.
Love him or hate Mourad Boudjellal, the 358 pages of this book are swallowed up. Like a cuteness that melts under the tongue because he knows so well how to tell stories …
“I knew too much…”, Mourad Boudjellal with Arnaud Ramsay. Solar editions. € 18.90. Release Thursday, December 3.
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