Before the players’ transfer window, make way for musical chairs at the… sporting directors. This week, Peguy Luyindula, ex-striker from Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille took office in Dijon. In a few weeks, Florian Maurice, leaving the OL recruitment cell, should also become “DS” in Rennes, even if the case is slow to materialize. But the two former center-fronts, if they occupy the same position on paper, will not fulfill the same missions in Côte-d’Or and in Brittany.
If Luyindula was inducted to “define and implement the sports policy of all the entities of the DFCO”, Maurice, him, will mainly be devoted to recruitment, a sector he knows well for having been responsible for the dedicated cell in Lyon for many years.
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Roles that collide
If it is not, in principle, the only mission backed by its function – there is no legal definition of the position – recruitment occupies a more or less important place in its road book, even when the club already has a dedicated cell. We saw it on the side of Lyon this year, where the comparison between the players seduced by the new “technical” director, Juninho, and those poached by Maurice Maurice, was the subject of debate throughout the season.
The duality between the club icon and the former striker who has built a solid reputation will not have lasted more than a season. Maurice therefore decided to leave his training club to find a wider field of action in his chosen sector.
Proof that the powers devolved to the sporting director – or technical director or even football director – also depend, and above all, on the organization chart of the club, and the prerogatives that each, with the president and the coach, wants to fulfill. Whatever its attributions, which vary widely from one club to another – a “DS” has more extensive powers in Brest, Nîmes or Angers than in Marseille or Monaco, for example – the post made its hole in France for ten years.
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More or less wide prerogatives according to the clubs
Leonardo’s arrival at PSG, along with Qatar’s takeover in the capital, “popularized” the function. The most prestigious clubs in Ligue 1 have followed in the footsteps of the champion of France, seeking what was best on the Old Continent. Marseille, which had already experienced the presence of a sports director with José Anigo at the time when Didier Deschamps was coaching, thus succeeded in attracting Andoni Zubizarreta, sports director of Barça from 2012 to 2015. A mixed bet: if the ex -Spanish international goalkeeper has taken over since André Villas-Boas came last summer, he had previously received a lot of criticism.
Another name recognized in the community, Luis Campos has made Ligue 1 his garden for several seasons. The Portuguese first put his networks at the service of Monaco, before going to Lille, where he continues to work miracles – it is Victor Osimhen. If Campos or Zubizarreta are mainly responsible for recruitment, the Brazilians Leonardo at PSG or Juninho in Lyon have a wider range.
The first, in addition to impressing his authority in the locker room when that of the coach is no longer sufficient, replaces the daily Nasser Al Khelaïfi, the president, and ensures communication on hot issues. “Juni” is the link between the staff and the players and between the staff and the managers. With his aura, he also occupied the role of technical “tutor” with Sylvinho, less with the more experienced Garcia. Its president, Jean-Michel Aulas, also expects him to embody the club, which is not necessarily asked of Zubizarreta or Campos.
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