Saturday April 15, on behalf of the 24th day of Starligue, Nîmes receives Dunkirk at 8 p.m. Coach Franck Maurice, who has moved from one club to another, looks back on his departure and talks about his return to Parnassus.
November 28, 2014 – March 28, 2022. A seven-year term and four months. This was the length of Franck Maurice’s tenure at the head of the Usam Nîmes pro team. From maintenance to Europe. The 51-year-old coach, who has become Dunkirk’s, returns to Parnassus. With memories full of the head… and many things to say.
After the first leg in September in the North (34-32 for Usam), in what state of mind do you return to Parnassus?
I come back happy, with a smile, the desire to meet people. I want to enjoy the moment. It will inevitably be special, and it will always be so each time I return to Gagny, the gymnasium of my debut, and to Nîmes, where I spent half of my coaching career.
You are going to find your former assistant, Yann Balmossière, whom you would have liked to take to Dunkirk. He turned 50 on Tuesday April 11. What are you going to tell him?
I got him on the phone for his birthday. He is a friend, a relative even. He knows what I think of him. But if he had to be complimented for anything, it would be for his exceptional loyalty, and his values.
You will also come across your former president, David Tebib, with whom relations have become complicated over time. And to him, what are you going to say to him?
We met again at the National League media day at the start of the season. We’re going to say hello! He was my president for ten years (before the pros, Maurice was training at Usam, editor’s note). During this period, he was surely the person with whom I was most in contact. There were very good times and some very difficult ones, which affected my family. But I have no energy to waste on what happened. I am calm.
Do you still have a taste of unfinished business, when it’s been a year since you retired from Usam?
(He thinks). No. When I stopped, I had known for a long time that a change of coach was being considered. The dice were a little loaded in the last season, but we hung on. The main thing is that the team bounced back after I left.
As for me, I will have rubbed shoulders with great players and experienced great matches in Nîmes, which made me a better coach and a better man. That’s what I remember.
How do you judge the current season of Nîmes?
They are having a decent season. I believe that Chambéry is in its place, and that the other three are inaccessible. If there were five European places, we wouldn’t wonder if they are having a good season or not…
The club had announced that they were aiming for the Champions League in the long term. Is it utopian?
If you have a budget of 7 or 8 M€, yes, it is possible (USAM is at 5.7 M€, Ed). The higher you are, the more the hierarchy of budgets is a reality. Otherwise, behind, you fight for places from 4th to 11th…
Like your team now. We also thought at one point that you were going to be the good surprise of the championship…
At the end of November, after beating Cesson, we are fifth. But we took a hit on the “caboche” by losing our two leaders, OB (Nyateu, ex-Usamiste) and Pujol. We had to rethink the whole game project. It slowed us down in our momentum, our progress and our stabilization. We are in reconstruction but in terms of game and state of mind, we are on the right path.
The objective of the season was to finish in the first half of the table: for the moment, we are there, 8th. But our half-center medical joker, Diogo, has just been injured…
And how is life in Dunkirk?
It is very surprising. Very far from the caricature that one imagines when one is from the South, and at the same time close to the idea that one has of the North and the warmth of its inhabitants. It’s very welcoming, very empathetic. It’s a beautiful life, with beautiful people and beautiful places to discover. That’s a nice summary (smile)!
Finally, how do you see the game this Saturday?
I see it very complicated! We are going to play the game we have planned. I had almost all the players under my command, between one and eight years old. I know what everyone does in the important moments…
At some point, Usam will take over the game. We will then try to bring them to the end of the end. You don’t always realize it, but the power they give off… It’s a team that wears you out physically and mentally.
Tom Poyet back, victory too?
THE GAME After four victories in a row (Chartres, Limoges, Cesson and Toulouse), Usam fell from quite a height in Chambéry nine days ago, beaten 36-31. Their direct competitors for Europe, Savoyards and Haut-Garonne, having already played and won Thursday at the start of the 24th day, the Nîmes must return to success against Dunkirk to continue dreaming of a continental ticket.
What if PSG or Montpellier won a European Cup? And if the fifth place was qualifying? The Green team will come with the same group as in Chambéry, with one exception: Poyet, back, replaces the young Joblon.
