It is Jacques Rousselot who deserves a thousand thanks today. Obvious, immense, indisputable thanks for his 27 years of passion at the head of the club. And yet this Saturday at the end of the day, when receiving us in his beautiful apartment in Nancy, it is he who begins with thanks: “Thank you to all those who send me messages since the announcement of the sale. Thursday ”. From Michel Platini to his ex-collaborators like Nicolas Holveck or Pablo Correa, to the fans of the club they meet in the street. Even former players like Clément Lenglet and Faitout Maouassa went there with their touching text messages. We feel he is upset.
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That’s all “JR”, that. Funny nickname knowing him. Far from the ruthless and selfish world of “Dallas”, the old cult 1980s TV series. Quite the opposite of the cruel JR Ewing, one of the star characters of “Dallas”. Two words to define President Jacques Rousselot: deeply human. For him, life, football, is sharing. Share with fans, players, coaches, partners… Share the greatest successes, of course, with the intense joy of having brought 40,000 Nancy residents to the Stade de France on April 22, 2006 for the Coupe de la Ligue final and the eternal happiness of having celebrated the victory the next day on a crowded Place Stanislas. But to share, also, the most painful periods, such as these last seasons, with the pride of having won the loyalty of a real public to Picot whatever the circumstances, except when the health crisis obviously imposes a closed door.
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An autodidact
This sense of sharing comes to him perhaps, surely, from his career. From his first job at the Neuves-Maisons factory at 16 to CEO at Leclerc and even boss of the company E.Leclerc Voyages. Jacques Rousselot was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he rose through the ranks by learning from others and working as a team. A story of human encounters, too. This is all that attracted him to ASNL, in 1994, when the then mayor of Nancy André Rossinot was looking for a buyer for the club which accused a hole of 42 million francs …
At that time, Jacques Rousselot could have gone to basketball, to SLUC, where the late Jean-Jacques Eisenbach wanted him as leader but he chose to devote his time and money to football. This world of the round ball that so fascinated the kid from Pont-Saint-Vincent. One of his first follies as a brilliant businessman, in 1986? Buy a player at ASNL on behalf of Leclerc stores: the formidable Scottish center-forward Ray Stephen!
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The election to the FFF hurt him a lot
Also in love with cycling and cars, to the point of having passed on his passion to his son Benoît, French rally champion, Jacques Rousselot has always done things thoroughly. In football, as in a race, there are some corners you should not miss. “JR” has often been able to find the right trajectory, just look at the progress of the installations at the Marcel-Picot stadium and at the Forêt de Haye training center. But there is a turn that he should not have taken, he says to himself in any case with hindsight, it is that of his candidacy for the election of the presidency of the FFF in 2017, facing Christmas Le Graët who was not initially supposed to represent himself… The beginning of a difficult reign at ASNL.
But this does not weigh heavily at the time of the assessment, more than a quarter of a century of giving everything for the club of his heart, with its qualities and its faults, like everyone else. There have been ups and downs, but no debate to say that Jacques Rousselot, 71, was a great president. During his hard times at the head of the ASNL, or his health problems, “JR” often told us that he found strength by thinking of his father orphaned at 12 years old and prisoner of war six years with the Russians. . From all up there, his dad must be very proud of him.
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