On May 4, 1996, Nîmes Olympique managed to climb to the final of the Coupe de France, finally won 2-1 by Auxerre. For the first time in the history of the most prestigious of competitions, a National club succeeded in reaching the Parc des Princes. To mark this 25e anniversary, Abder Ramdane, the passer, and Omar Belbey, the scorer, have agreed to come back to this match which is forever part of the history of the Crocs. Jokes, anecdotes and emotions: they remember everything!
Objectif Gard: Before talking about the meeting, do you remember the last days before the match and in particular the trip to Paris?
Omar belbey : I remember something that shocked me is that the TV came to Courbiers on Thursday before leaving and that President Aimé Landes asked us for our first names because they did not know them. On the morning of the match we had shaved the head of Michel Imbert, the steward, we had tied him to three or four.
Abder Ramdane : We had left two days before by plane. We were young, we said to ourselves we are going to be in a hotel in Paris we will be able to visit. No, we met outside near Fleury-Mérogis. The Auxerrois had the big hotels and we had the prison!
Did you manage to take a nap in the afternoon of the final?
A.R : Me, I slept all the time!
O.B : Usually I slept but I couldn’t do it now. I gambergeais, I dreaded the match a little.
What image comes back to you when you arrive at the Parc des Princes?
A.R : The escort with the bikers in the city. It made us weird. In Nîmes no need for bikers. When I returned to the field for the lawn reconnaissance, there was the Gambardella Cup final between Montpellier and Nantes. I see Louis Nicollin on the bench and many people from Nîmes were already present in the stands to form a red wall. When we appeared in our rotten red Adidas jackets, the audience stood up and I got chills. And I think it wasn’t just me.
What was the message of coach Pierre Barlaguet in the locker room?
A.R : We said we will give everything. I remember Louis Puech, a bonesetter who came with us and managed to hypnotize people. I said to him: “I don’t believe in your bullshit!“. And 20 minutes before kick-off he felt me stressed out, he did it to me and I fell asleep for a minute.
O.B : Zugna immediately passed out when she saw him arrive!
And you Omar, did you?
A.R : No, Omar, we must not calm him down. He must keep his aggressiveness. Just before entering the field we made jokes galore. We didn’t take ourselves seriously, that’s why we succeeded. It was our mode of operation, we needed to laugh. On the other hand, when we found ourselves in the corridor and saw the players next door, they were taller, more muscular, they had everything more than us. We were very thin, the jersey was too large, the sleeves too long. There we were no longer laughing.
O.B : They were champions of France! Some time before I had come as a spectator to see PSG play in the Champions League against Real Madrid and there I found myself on the pitch, it was huge.
“I was lucky to have Dalmao’s crampons”
The Marseillaise and the handshake with President Jacques Chirac, it is inevitably a beautiful memory …
A.R : You don’t hear it every day so when you hear it, you have to respect it. My mother has kept the photo where I shake hands with Mr. Chirac. It’s a mark of respect, he was a good guy. He told me: “good game, good wind”.
O.B : Me too ! La Marseillaise means that you find yourself in an unusual event. I heard it again with Algeria against France (a friendly match in 2001 stopped after invasion of the field, Editor’s note) but it pained me a lot because there was no respect. I would not have liked the Algerian anthem to be whistled in Algeria.
Were your families present in the stands?
O.B : My mother was there and at the end of the match she went down all alone from the stands to in front of the locker rooms. I was doing an interview with Téléfoot and turning my head I see her. And a photographer had taken me with her.
A.R : It’s wonderful to do an interview with your mom next door!
Let’s go to the 25e minute and the opening of the scoring: can you tell us about the goal?
O.B : I’ll let you tell the beginning, I’ll explain the end …
A.R : Everything we did was instinctive, it wasn’t calculated. I win a duel in front of Taribo West. He had followed me individually throughout the match and told me at the start: “you are the big football star, i’ll show you what football is all about.“ As if to say you’re going to fly! With Nico (Marx), we understood each other perfectly, he acts as a screen, I overflow and I tell myself that we have to put her back because there is no longer any attacker in the box. Luckily, Omar arrives.
O.B : I don’t even know why I’m here! I just want to hit the ball as it comes. I never want to cross her like that. I retry it 10,000 times, I send it to the rostrum. But I was lucky to have Dalmao’s crampons. Guy Roux had asked to wet the lawn and I had no screwed studs. So José lent me these Diadora with a gold band and they allowed me to score.
A.R : He was not on the sheet because suddenly Ludovic Gros was on the bench and I started. After the semi-final against Montpellier (1-0), I was injured in the arcade and I did not train for three weeks. I didn’t think I would start but the coach tells me “you are going to play”. I was surprised. Any player would have hated me but not in our squad. It was the strength of M. Barlaguet who sees that you are part of an adventure from the start and who does not want to kidnap you.
“Our friend Bochu thought he was Beckenbauer”
When it comes time to celebrate, it goes all over the place.
O.B : I see the ball bouncing slowly again, I don’t see it coming in right away because Rabarivony knocks me down. It’s when I see the goalkeeper lying with the ball behind him that I realize. I run towards Abder but I was not used to scoring. Limit I don’t know how to celebrate a goal …
A.R : They all come to me to be in front of the Nîmes audience. And there I do not know, I take the flag to show that Nîmes was there. I think about it sometimes and I tell myself that there is in this gesture a little symbolic side to Joan of Arc who carries the flag. It was to show that we had achieved something. On the other hand in the adrenaline I struggled to put it back so I just put it on the corner post.
You are leading 1-0 at halftime. What is the speech at the break?
O.B : “Babar” (the nickname of Pierre Barlaguet) has boosted and reboosted us in every way. We were holding our own in Auxerre, it was no small feat. We had spent a lot of energy. We knew that at some point it wouldn’t be possible to run as much.
A.R : The National has nothing to do with the Premier League. I was done at half time. We didn’t talk much. Pierrot told us not to take the lead and to keep the 1-0 as long as possible. We had done it against Montpellier so why not go to the end even if it was utopian.
O.B : In the first half, Auxerre was not very sharp. In second, they started to play. I told myself they injected Chablis into their veins. They were going at 2,000 an hour, even Sabri Lamouchi was going faster than me.
And then you concede two goals in the 52e and 88e.
O.B : I still haven’t understood how we take this goal from a corner. I see Philippe (Sence, the guard) he goes there and then he backs up. He may be embarrassed.
A.R : Even at the equalizer it was already the end, the second goal was going to arrive. We did not get past the midfield and we did not give ourselves any opportunity.
O.B : Yes ! Our friend Bochu thought he was Beckenbauer by dribbling four players and then shooting. It wasn’t even a shot it was a tackle!
A.R : Just before going out (68th), I jump to the head with Laurent Blanc. He looks at me and says: “you jump high.” When I fell, I had crazy cramps, I was at the end of it. And when I sit on the bench, I am interviewed. “Are you in place?”, asks the journalist and Laslandes mark. The guy got up and left.
What feeling prevails at the moment of the final whistle?
O.B : We had no regrets. We were proud not to have been beaten 5-0 as everyone announced.
A.R : In overtime, we would have been ridiculed. Now I would have cried but at that time we didn’t realize. We did not experience it as an exceptional event, it is the enthusiasm of the public that made it like that. We were going to play a soccer match. A row in a chart is after you learn that. We had no experience, a bunch of young people of 20, 22 years old with two, three guys who didn’t give a damn and let us do it. It gave them back a little youth, Pépé, (Christian Perez) took us for crazy.
O.B : We never took ourselves seriously!
A.R : After the game, the first thought was where are we going to party? We’re going to dress well. Before the match, the leaders gathered us together and each received an envelope of 10,000 francs as match bonuses. If we were invited, a good part was spent that evening.
O.B : I remember that we had our weight in a bottle of wine. I received 72 bottles from the best cellar, that of Bourdic, although I don’t drink any.
“There were drag queens, I danced with them”
Where have you been out?
A.R : We had eaten in a gastro thing under a marquee but we were bored, it lasted. After a while, Philippe, who had organized everything, said “let’s go”. We took taxis to go to the Platinium. There were drag queens, I danced with them (laughs). I was a savage, it was new to us, we wanted to discover. I don’t think I even slept. On the plane nobody spoke anymore.
O.B : I had seen Pierre Palmade it was a hot (laughs).
The next day, were there a lot of people waiting for you at Garons airport?
A.R : They were 5,000! The hall was armored, we couldn’t get to the bus. What would it have been like if we had won.
25 years later, are we still talking about this final?
O.B : No later than last Tuesday, a gentleman recognizes me and says to me: “thank you for giving us so much fun. “I feel like I’ve only played one game in my life.
A.R : It’s been so long since I left but I’ve done a lot of other things in my life. I haven’t done that in my playing career. Afterwards, it’s the Nîmes, I can’t blame them. Afterwards, when I hear about heroes against Montpellier, no. Against Strasbourg, I missed the penalty. It could have stopped.
Are you still in relationship with former teammates?
A.R : During confinement, I was home all alone. And I decided to create a discussion group, rather of jokes, with all the players.
O.B : It’s nice to catch some news. We still see each other in La Grande-Motte at Antoine Préget’s. In any case, we remained a great bunch of friends!
Corentin Corger
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