Joseph Oughourlian, president of RC Lens, explains in After Foot on RMC the feeling of belonging to the northern club and the day he understood what “proud to be Lensois” meant.
Very discreet in the media, Joseph Oughourlian was the guest of l’After Foot this Wednesday on RMC. The opportunity for the president of RC Lens to take stock of the start of his team’s season, to discuss the arrival of partners and to explain the feeling of belonging to the northern club.
“I understood what it meant to be proud to be from Lens”
“When we look at the opinion polls, we see that in Hauts-de-France, Lens is really the club,” he stressed on RMC. When they filmed the film Bienvenue chez les Ch ’tis, it’s Bollaert that they’re going to. I’m not trying to speak badly about Losc here, but it’s just a fact. The ch’ti club, the local club, the regional club, is Lens, whether it is in Ligue 1 or Ligue 2. It would be complicated for another club, like Valenciennes or Dunkirk for example, to compete with us on this point.
President of the Sang et Or since 2018 after recovering the club from bankruptcy in 2016, Oughourlian can pride himself on having brought Lens back to the Champions League, having won the trust of both French football and the Lens public. “When I joined the club, I started by doing a seminar on our values. Who are we? I brought in supporters, team players, partners and local authorities. I was aware to arrive from another world as a financier. I came to collect information and I really realized the power of this club from a values point of view, territorial attachment… There are few clubs like that,” added Oughourlian, before sharing a personal anecdote.
“One of my fondest memories as president is a trip to Valenciennes (in 2019). I am with the supporters in the park. We lost 2-0, with two red cards. That day, the supporters sang until the end and made more noise than the Valenciennes. I said to myself that it was crazy. That’s when I understood what it meant to be proud to be from Lens.”
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