Rugby player Alan Brazo, who has been playing for the Perpignan club Usap (Top 14) for eight years, has just won a doctorate in marine biology at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia (Pyrénées-Orientales). A performance for this 30-year-old player who has combined his two passions for twelve years: rugby and the study of the aquatic environment.
Benefiting from a program adapted to top-level athletes, Alan Brazo was able to complete his thesis in seven years instead of three, the only way to carry out his activities as a student and as a professional player. When he was not in the field, Alan Brazo devoted himself to the study of a fish classified as a vulnerable species found in the Mediterranean Sea, the corb.
“I have been passionate about the aquatic environment since I was a kid. It comes to me from my grandfather,” he says. At 18, he left Castres to join Perpignan in order to obtain a technological DUT in Environmental Engineering. “I, who until then had been more into football, quickly caught the rugby virus,” he smiles. Spotted, he then joined Usap in the Young Hope category. At the time, his studies remained his priority, but in 2013, the Perpignan club’s relegation to ProD2 led to the departure of several players, which at the same time offered the opportunity for a few young people like him to get noticed. “I play fifteen games with the professionals and at the end of the season, I was offered my first professional contract. »
His playing pay funded his studies
Determined to also pursue his university studies, Alan Brazo obtained a master’s degree in marine geoscience the same year. Of those years when it was necessary to juggle between studies and performance in the field, Alan Brazo describes intense, but also complicated periods. It’s not always easy to find the energy to join the university benches once the locker room door is closed. “At the end of my master’s degree, I left to give priority to rugby, but an internship carried out within the Cefrem laboratory (Centre for training and research on Mediterranean environments) highlighted the issues raised by my subject. on the corb which deserved to be deepened. »
Supported both by his club and by the research unit team, Alan Brazo is therefore embarking on a thesis. “I have always made sure that studies do not encroach on my sports performance, especially since it is my pay as a professional player that has financed my studies. »
Under contract with Usap until June 2024, Alan Brazo now wants to devote himself to rugby. “Afterwards, I will see, depending on the opportunities. I will be 32 years old and this doctorate can allow me to teach or go into the field. As far as sport is concerned, things can go very quickly, one way or the other. I don’t want to project myself too far. »
