Patrice Neveu will attack the CAN, with Gabon, on Monday, against a novice in the competition, The Comoros, before coming up against two big outsiders, Ghana, on January 14, and Morocco, on the 18th. The Bonnevalais s’ was revealed in 2006 with Guinea. In Cameroon, he hopes to do as well …
Patrice Neveu, you’ve been traveling in Africa for about twenty years. Did you think you would have such a long career on this continent?
No. After graduating and training a few amateur clubs, I told myself that if I wanted to have a career that corresponded to my ambitions, I had to leave France. And yet, at that time, I had a good civil servant position in La Rochelle, I was deputy director of the swimming pool. But I already had an attraction for the African continent.
Patrice Neveu with the star of the selection Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Arsenal striker.
How did this attraction come about?
He attracted me for different reasons, the culture, the landscapes and the development of football.
Did you know Africa before going there?
No… I was friends with Philippe Troussier (1), whom I had known in Angoulême, who told me about it. I had my vision of Africa through books, African players with whom I had worked in France.
The first time you set foot in Africa, it was in Niger …
Yes. I was in the process of passing my 2nd degree as a coach and there was a manager who worked in particular on Africa and asked me if I was interested in working there. I told him that I was open to all proposals and he knew the president of the Federation of Niger. It was a good springboard even if Nigerien football was very underdeveloped. I stayed there four-five months before leaving for Morocco, at the Rabat club.
“At CAN, every people wants to exist”
Was your goal to coach a club or a selection?
I hadn’t done a math. My goal was to train top players. I had some certainties but I had to prove myself and the proofs are the results. Results are what dictate your career.
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What do you love most: coaching a club or a country?
It’s different, a club is a daily job. Today, I am more focused on the job of manager. It’s high-level management, with the best players in the country. It is also detection, and there is not too much room for error, you have to be fair in your choices. It takes personality to lead players who sometimes play for big clubs.
You who have experienced both, what is stronger emotionally, a CAN or a Copa America?
It’s different. A Copa is much less publicized on Europe than a CAN. At CAN, there is more pressure. But, the Copa remains something grand like facing Brazil.
Patrice Neveu with Stéphanois Denis Bouanga.
What do you have as memories of CAN 2006 in Egypt?
It was my first CAN, and Guinea was an outsider. But we felt the country behind his selection, especially after winning the three group matches. Compared to a European Championship, the CAN is a party on and off the pitch. Each people wants to gain recognition and exist. Africa is exchange, music, songs, people go to CAN to free themselves. But, personally, I don’t worry too much about the extras, I go there to create a surprise. I imagine the route that can be taken to reach a suitable goal.
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Are you in the same situation with Gabon as you were with Guinea, outsider?
Yes, a little, even if the pressure I feel it stronger there because Gabon organized two CAN, has never been further than the quarter-finals and it was absent from the last edition. The state has put a lot of resources in place for the selection. And then unlike 2006, where I had good players like Pascal Feindouno or Kaba Diawara, there I have a star player like Aubameyang, who has an international aura, who will be scrutinized by the media. He would like to mark his passage during this CAN in Cameroon.
“A very good result would be a semi-final”
What would a good CAN result be?
A very good result, it would be a semi-final. As soon as you pass the quarters, you can tell yourself that you can go to the end. I remember that in 2006, we came out 1st in our pool and then we faced Senegal in the quarterfinals. At half-time, we lead 1-0 then I have my minister, euphoric, who entered the locker room and he cut me off my briefing… (Editor’s note: Guinea lost 3-2). There, if I don’t have too many glitches in the first round, we can easily compete.
For twenty years you have lived in the country where you work. Can we understand the African mentality without living there?
Not impossible ! The fact of living there gives you additional assets to claim to be successful. It is impossible otherwise… In Africa, the culture and the mentality are different from one country to another.
As Gérard Houllier said, “coaches’ wives are football widows”.
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For you, it is a family sacrifice. Because you are alone in Gabon, without your wife or your children …
As Gérard Houllier said, “coaches’ wives are football widows.” Whoever the coach is, in France or elsewhere, I don’t think he spends a lot of time with his wife. We don’t see each other but I have it on the phone often. It’s a lifestyle choice. The daily life of a coach is not with his wife, it is with the field. When you are alone, like me, it is an advantage because you can completely devote yourself to your work. Even when I return to France, to La Rochelle, I see a little family, but I am often in my office.
His misadventures in qualifying for the CAN
Could your wife have followed you to Africa?
Yeah … As long as you share the same attraction as I do for foreign countries and Africa, and that’s not the case. If my wife has agreed to stay in France, it is because that suits her too.
When you quit your career, won’t you miss Africa?
Yes, but I will always keep a link. It is obvious that the strongest link today is football. I have been in Gabon for two and a half years and, unfortunately, I only know Libreville and its surroundings, nothing from the interior of the country, because local football is stopped. Gabon, I will visit it when my mission is finished.
(1) He started training in Africa in 1990.
His journey :
Born March 29, 1957 in Pré-Saint-Evroult (67 years old). Married, 2 children. Midfielder.
Player career: OC Châteaudun (1971-75), Angoulême (75-76), VS Chartres (76-80) La Rochelle (80-88), Ile-d’Elle (88-89).
Coaching career: St-Martin-de-Ré (89-91), Fontenay-le-Comte (91-98), Angoulême (98-99), Niger (DTN, 99), Rabat (Morocco, 99-2000), Médénine (Tunisia , 00-02), Dalian Shide then Shanghai Liancheng (China, 02-04), Guinea (04-06), Ismaïlia (Egypt, 07), DR Congo (08-10), Smouha (Egypt, 10), Mauritania ( 12-14), Haiti (15-16), Horoya (Guinea, 18-19), Gabon (2019 -…).
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Jean-André Provost
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