The current Bastia coach had his first experience on the Raf bench, between 2003 and 2005. With the legacy of a rise in CFA, offensive dazzling and the start of renewal.
Back to where it all began. For the last match of the year, Régis Brouard, the Bastia coach, travels to Rodez, tomorrow evening, where he had his first experience on a bench. In the wake of a final season as a player with Cannes, he changed his cap in the summer of 2003 to take charge of the fate of Rodez Aveyron football at its worst. Far from the splendor of the early 90s, the blood and gold club then dragged its penalty into the depths of the CFA2 (the former National 3).
After several refusals, Régis Brouard ended up responding positively to Jean-Louis Gayrard and Thierry Nesson, leaders who had just arrived at the helm. The strength of the emotional, no doubt, to reconnect with a club that already counted in its career. He had a first birth there, that of his playing career. On leaving the Auxerre training center in 1985, the midfielder joined Piton where he spent five seasons, including one in Division 2. Before taking, in the summer of 1990, the management of Montpellier. , in D1.
“Coming here where I have always spent my holidays regularly, where I have many friends, where I know the city and the club by heart, I privileged the sentimental aspect”, explained the person in the columns of Free noon in July 2003, shortly after his return. The romantic face of a character renowned for his whole character. “Outbursts of anger, he had them. When he had something to say, he said it, it was always part of his temperament”, abounds Marc Geniez, who was his partner then his trainer of the goalkeepers in the blood and gold.
Record goals in a season
If the story of the former Rodez player who returned to Paul-Lignon to start his coaching career was attractive, it was still necessary that sporting success be there. And it has been. The first season ended with a climb, after having flown over the debates. The Raf did not go far from the recurrence during the following exercise, finished in second place, five points from Toulon. With in addition a 32nd final of the Coupe de France at Paul-Lignon against a Ligue 1 team (Metz, 1-2) and a fiery attack (70 goals in the first season, club record in a national division) , Brouard’s two years on the bench left good memories for lovers of blood and gold.
The young trainer may have benefited from a workforce that was greatly changed upon his arrival, and of high quality compared to the competition, this course also bears his stamp. “He always advocated attacking football, he liked to have the ball”, remembers Miguel Pacios. Arrived from Cannes in the summer of 2003, in the luggage of his former partner, the striker was one of the headliners of the recruitment of that summer, with Franck Rizzetto or Nicolas Bayod, also become Paul-Lignon favorites. The list of reinforcements, about ten names long, also includes those of experienced players such as David Joseph, Julien Ritas or the former members of the house Gregory Adams and Fabien Fernandez.
“He created group cohesion”
“While the workforce has been greatly changed, Régis has been able to create a group cohesion between the new ones and those who were already there”, says Miguel Pacios. Witnesses praise his management skills. “He was a leader of men. He wanted each player to give 100% and to get the best out of each one”, adds Marc Geniez. “He is passionate and close to his players”, adds Pacios.
Between differences of opinion with Joël Pilon, a major leader of Raf at the time, and the proposal of Nîmes, another club to which he is attached which was then playing in the National, the passage of Régis Brouard on the bench of Rodez ended two years after his arrival. “It’s all in the past and there weren’t any big arguments either. It’s part of the life of a club and a coach.”, now relativizes the current coach of Bastia. And anyway, the epilogue does not tarnish the trace of these two seasons in the history of the club, marked by a rise and return of the flame.
As an opponent of the Raf, maximum success
Since leaving Rodez in 2005, Régis Brouard has faced the Raf twice. It was in 2017-2018, in the National, when he was officiating on the bench of the Red Star. Each time, he beat his old club (1-0 in Seine-Saint-Denis; 2-1 in Paul-Lignon). And he finished ahead of the final standings, as that season the Red Star finished in first place in the championship, while Rodez, with the status of promoted, finished 4th. could have intervened much earlier. In 2007-2008, already in the National, he was removed from the position of coach of Nîmes after ten days… less than a week after the Crocos moved to Aveyron.
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