Nicolas Penneteau: " Burning Karembeu's clothes was nice "

Comments collected by Emile Gillet Modified

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At 40, seven years after leaving Valenciennes, did you expect to return to Ligue 1? No, not at all. As I begin to advance in age, I had never imagined that. The meeting in March with Mathieu Lacour (general manager of Reims, Ed.) came a bit from nowhere. He wanted someone with experience to supervise this young group and help the other elders so that there was a good chemistry. It immediately seduced me. It was an opportunity to challenge myself and rediscover the championship a bit, I found it interesting. You hadn't been a substitute since 2000 and your debut at Bastia. What does it feel like? Of course, I'm not used to it. But even being a starter in my career, I always told myself that I would have the same attitude if I had to go number two, with the desire to win all the little games, to perform well, to bring my dynamism. It's just the weekend that changes because I sit in the stands. With age, I get used to it a little more, but I know why I came, I am not in early retirement. And then you never know what can happen with injuries or suspensions. Last season, Eiji Kawashima played 24 games for Strasbourg as number three. And Vincent Planté, a friend, played for Chambly at 40, when he was a goalkeeper coach! In your contract, is there a retraining planned?Yes, it is planned with the club. It's me who will define what I like the most, passing the diplomas of goalkeeping coach or coach, because both interest me. We will define that in the months and two years to come. I will prepare myself more and more seriously. At 40, it will be necessary, when I see that I am in the tenth age of coaches, it starts to be worrying. (Laughs.) Some staff guys aren't even in their 40s yet!Do you know you're one of ten active players to have played in four decades?Yeah, that's pretty huge . (Laughs.) We laugh a lot in the locker room with young people when I tell them the age at which I started, many were not yet born. It's nice because it shows that I've managed to perform well over time. And it makes you smile to be next to names like Zlatan Ibrahimović or Gianluigi Buffon. (Kazuyochi Miura, Roque Santa Cruz, Maxi Rodríguez, Fabio, Shunsuke Nakamura, Yasuhito Endo and Razundara Tjikuzu complete the list.) Do you have any regrets despite your long career?A few trains have passed, but I tell myself that if I didn't take them, it must have been like that. When I was in Bastia, they didn't want to let me go to Paris, which took Letizi, and to Nantes, to replace Landreau. But eventually Nantes went down, so it was a good choice. In Valenciennes, I had contacts with Toulouse who were playing in the European Cup. But Antoine Kombouaré had just left, and President Francis Decourrière wanted no executive to leave the same year as the coach, so I stayed.Is that one of your biggest disappointments?No. Even though I had cruciate ligaments in 2009, my biggest disappointment was the downhill in 2014. With Valenciennes, it was a huge human sadness because something was wrong in the group. There was too much individualism, not enough collective, which was a strength of the club with humility, people and hard work. We did not manage to have a coach who allows us to put the collective first. Daniel Sanchez and Ariël Jacobs didn't have the impact to show who was boss, and the group took over. On the contrary, what are you most proud of? The most emotionally striking thing is with Valenciennes, when we obtained our maintenance in the last match against Nice in 2011, for the last one at the Nungesser stadium. The feeling was indescribable because it was an incredible human adventure. For a club like that, it's very strong. It's like winning a title. We also know that it is important for employees. And to see that the club has managed to structure itself based on this, with a very beautiful stadium and a training center, it is a source of pride to say that we have put a small stone in the building. . It is a pride to have obtained more supports than descents, even if I have two to my credit. (Laughs.) Is there a conceded goal that sticks in your throat?I did make a few balls anyway, so it's not easy. (Laughs.) But there was one that was quite frustrating, because it was the only free kick from Juninho that I took. I was playing in Bastia, and we had developed a tactic. My defender Antar Yahia had to come out of the wall and get right next to me so I don't have to manage the whole goal. Juninho passes the ball over the wall, but it arrives on the left of Yahia who was left-handed. I don't know why, he wants to clear with his right foot, he misses the ball which goes into the cages. It was a huge frustration because we had done what was necessary to counter Juninho. I looked at Yahia, he apologized, but I knew he wanted to do his best, poor thing. Afterwards, I met Juninho at the end of the match, he said to me: "You are the first goalkeeper to want to do this and you almost had me! » Are there other opponents who have marked you?Honestly, I think I have two: Pauleta and Didier Drogba. These are the two attackers where I realized that in each game, they managed to put one. The year we won against Marseille de Drogba with Bastia, we won 4-1, but he scored a penalty. I start from the right side, but she hits the post and I can't stop her. I say to myself: "He still managed to score, it sucks. “(Laughs.) Pauleta, it was more fox goals, he often scored. But in the end, they were the executioners of a lot of other goalkeepers, so that's fine. Conversely, do you remember certain teammates in particular?I have plenty of them. Already in Bastia, there is Mickaël Essien. I spent great years with the duo Lilian Laslandes - Florian Maurice and Christophe Galtier as assistant coach. There was also Jocelyn Gourvennec in number ten and Laurent Batlles. When I see that they are all coaches in clubs, it does not make me younger. (Laughs.) How to miss Steve Savidan who marked his time at Valenciennes... We got along very well because he pissed me off at every training session, and from time to time, I I was a little frustrated too. And then in Charleroi, there was Victor Osimhen, whom everyone knows now. He arrived a bit from nowhere on loan from Wolfsburg, and from the first training sessions, we said to ourselves: "Wow, he's a special player. What's the craziest moment you've had?There's a big rivalry between Charleroi and Standard de Liège. At the Charleroi stadium, the opposing supporters are behind a goal. During a derby, we lead in the score, except that I have 2000 people behind me and I take it all in the face: firecrackers, lighters, smoke... The match is interrupted once or twice, and we lose 3-2. There was a lot of frustration, and as I had been chambered on the third goal by Anthony Knockaert, when I passed him at the end of the match, I took him by the neck. Since I have a very good relationship with the Charleroi kop, when we played Standard again two years ago, they made a tifo with me on it where I took Knockaert by the throat. But it was huge, he took the whole platform. (Laughs.) I was torn because there was a lot of pride, this gesture of love from the kop touched me a lot. But on the other hand, it's a bit of a violent act, we shouldn't do those things...And your funniest memory?In Bastia, we were a group of a few players with Jean-Louis Leca, Christian Karembeu, Stéphane Ziani and David Sauget. I was rather discreet, but they liked to get dirty. Twice they tried to hit me, but I told them I would respond a hundredfold. Because I don't bother anyone, but if someone does something to me, I answer. David Sauget cut my socks off, but said it was Jean-Louis Leca. So what I did was I painted Jean-Louis' car, windshield included, he couldn't drive and see the road anymore, he was pissed off. (Laughs.) And since David Sauget had lied to me, I cut off all his shoes. He couldn't train anymore. Later, Karembeu and Ziani put my soaked T-shirt in the freezer. When I wanted to get it back, it was a brick. Later, I was injured in the locker room while they were on the pitch and I saw that Karembeu and Ziani liked to dress with nice brands. I took their things, I put them in a big black trash can, with rubbing alcohol. I went to the field, I lit and then I poured their burnt things still burning on the lawn. Well, that was nice. (Laughs.)Comments collected by Emile Gillet