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Christian Gourcuff, one of the most emblematic French football coaches, who spent nearly 40 years in the football world, looks back on his career in a book entitled Christian Gourcuff, my quest for the ideal game. The one who notably trained FC Lorient answers questions from RFI.
RFI: After 40 years in football, you have retired. Was it difficult to hang up?
Christian Gourcuff: No, gradually, I took a step back and I don’t miss it at all. I still have a passion for football, but this sport has changed a lot. I live in the memories, in the emotions that I have experienced throughout my career.
You say that opportunism has taken over this sport. That’s to say ?
It’s not just in football, it’s in the image of society. There is such a notion of financial interests, which has changed a lot of things, that there is now a lot of opportunism in footballwith networks, lobbies, sometimes favored by club structures. All this means that everyone wants to put forward their interests to the detriment of passion. This is also what we see in civil society. There is no longer any room for a more romantic outlook on life. Football is run by people who are primarily interested in money and success. They are not enthusiasts. It has an impact on young players, fans, the media. Growing interests generate individualism. It goes against what makes the essence of football, it’s obvious. Fortunately, there are still people who show passion.
The collective is no longer fashionable then?
More really. Creating a collective requires time, investment and we can see that it is no longer possible today. It takes a minimum of time to work. A coach needs time to impose his paw, to work on recruitment. We are in the ephemeral and in the show. In my opinion, work values are neglected. A coach wins two games and he is exceptional. If he loses two, he is in danger. It’s nonsense, and then there’s a whirlwind all around with the media and the fans taking it over. There is also the lobby agents that govern the market. It is the same logic as the economic sector.
According to you, since when does this evolution date, which according to you gives pride of place to money?
I have seen this development mainly in the last ten years. The status of the clubs has changed. There are holdings that lead. We don’t even know who is behind it. We are very far from the values of a club as we conceived it twenty years ago. It takes more and more money, sometimes with crooks. We are moving further and further away from the values of sport.
You miss Pep’s Barcelona Guardiola, an example for you.
It is the last example of a club that has existed on a history and a philosophy. There was a training policy, with Iniesta, Xavi and even Messi arriving early and imbued with that ethos. Xavi and Iniesta, it was a breath of fresh air watching them play. They had a technical quality, an intelligence, and a humility necessary for collective play. We cannot play collectively with ego excessive. The media, the public today are looking for personalities. They are not personalities, but ego excessive. Xavi and Iniesta were football, everything for football and the collective. They were exceptional. The Guardiola years, it was fascinating to see the harmony that there was around the club. It was a harmony between the coach, the players, the management and the supporters. No need for big speeches, when we looked at Barcelona, we said to ourselves that there was something more.
You quote Guardiola. What is the profile of the ideal coach, if it exists?
I don’t think there is an ideal coach. The coach is part of a philosophy and must be in line with it. I think that if we do the history of the big clubs, it is often when there is harmony between the coach and his environment. We talk about Barça, but there is also Ajax Amsterdam. In my opinion, a coach mainly succeeds in a good environment. If we take the example of Guardiola, he does not have the same success at Manchester City. However, it does not work less well. It’s true, he had time to set up his team, put his ideas in place, which is rare now. But City do not reach the level of Barcelona in terms of harmony. It’s harmony that makes football great.
This is the big mistake of PSG who thinks that always changing the coach will make him win the Champions League?
PSG is another story. The interests of this club are above all communication. They were in a short-term one-upmanship. We had to succeed very quickly. Twice, PSG could have won the Champions League. But between us, it is not because you win the Champions League that we will place you in the hierarchy of the big clubs in the world on an emotional level. PSG is above all marketing, and absolutely not a club with a philosophy.
