On Thursday, we introduced you to Nicolas Gagnon, head coach of the CF Montreal under-23 squad, and we told you that he was influenced by several trips to Brazil. Here is the story.
It all started with an invitation from a teammate with the University of Sherbrooke’s Vert et Or, who offered to come and visit him at his home in Taquara during the holiday season.
“It’s a small town near Porto Alegre and it has about 40,000 inhabitants, a bit like Saint-Hyacinthe, where I come from,” he says.
He makes the trip two years in a row and when he is looking for a second university internship, he who is studying in
kinesiology, he thinks outside the box.
“The mother of one of my Brazilian teammates works in a school. I’m going there to help the physical education teachers, as well as the futsal and soccer teams,” he says of his third visit, which will last five months.
Long trip
After returning to Quebec to complete his baccalaureate, he returned for the fourth time to Brazil, where he remained for 14 months. And this visit will leave an indelible mark on his career as a coach, which is intended to be quite unique.
“During my internship, I also worked for the Taquara team and the coach takes me to the Porto Alegre club and introduces me to people. An individual tells me that he will organize an internship for me with a team. »
Obviously, there is no news for months and things do not move. But he takes the bull by the horns.
“I call him for the first time and he answers me, probably because he didn’t know the number and he tells me the same thing and never calls me back. Two weeks later, I go to his office and he ends up giving me a one-month internship with the U17s of Internacional de Porto Alegre.
“I spent a month there, it was going really well and I stayed in touch with the physical trainer, with whom I still speak. I even helped her daughter from a distance with her English homework. »
At the enemy
Once his stay with Internacional ended, a contact allowed him to enter Grêmio, the opponent on the other side of the city, where he spent six months.
As his visa does not allow him to work, he does voluntary work and lives on his savings.
“I help with the U12 project, which are players who are close to joining the Academy, but who are not there yet. »
Before returning to Quebec, he toured four clubs, Vasco de Gama in Rio, Goias in Guoiânia, Cruzeiro in Belo Horizonte and Corinthians in Sao Paulo.
“Vasco is quite special because the stadium is in the middle of a favela. »
Doubts
Despite all his knowledge and skills, because he is Canadian, Nicolas Gagnon is able to see the legendary chauvinism of Brazilian football. An anecdote that happened in Grêmio illustrates this perfectly.
“The staff plays games every Thursday night and they don’t invite me until the organizer, a very obese man who I didn’t imagine playing, asked me to come because he was in a bad place.
“He puts me in his team and we break everything, there is not even a match. We are the two best players on the pitch and I am not a great player.
“At the end he told me he didn’t think I was capable of playing football and I told him the same. This is where I learn that he made the Academy of River Plate, “he says, laughing.
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