He is calm, thoughtful, measured. His discourse is reminiscent of post-match analysis by professionals. He does not lose his temper. His tone is soothing. Thomas is not like most twenty-year-olds. On one side: he is a student in Technical Sales Management. On the other side: he has a pure passion for soccer. “My role model is Lilian Thuram.” At a time when young soccer players idolize Cristiano Ronaldo for his obvious talent, but also for his extravagance on and off the field, Thomas’s preference reflects his character. He insists: “At the regional level, my model is Olivier Echouafni. He is intelligent, always well-placed, without unnecessary gestures.”
Too much violence. Not necessarily physical but also mental. The stakes killing the game. “I had no more joy. There were too many insults.” At 18, Thomas quit football. He no longer felt the desire to put on shorts and socks. He wanted to coach and educate as well. The leaders of Gazélec de Nice, his lifelong club, understood. They entrusted him with the club’s 10 to 12-year-old players. Thomas was honing his skills and trying to instill his values: fun and respect. And in all aspects of football. “Referees make mistakes sometimes. It’s not easy to referee. Things move fast even among the young. It’s just the way it is…” On the sideline, he says nothing. Thomas is dedicated to encouraging his players and repositioning them. “I also calm them in face of provocations or what they might see as injustices. I tell them: the best response is to win.” The worst? “I’ve heard coaches tell their young players to break legs.” What to do? Nothing. “You can just submit a report at the end of the match that is sent to the federation.”
Thomas sees the behavior of the young. It is modeled on TV reports. They dress and style their hair like their idol: Cristiano Ronaldo, the star player of Manchester United. “I have an anti-star discourse. I tell them not to act like they see on TV. They imitate their idols, for both good and bad. At practice, they try to reproduce the moves they’ve seen. In games, they often do too much. We even see players at this young age simulating fouls.” His remedy? He talks to them about other teams, those without stars or essential players in star-filled teams. To Barcelona, Manchester United, he counters with Lille OSC, OGC Nice, AS Nancy Lorraine. To Messi, Drogba, Ronaldo, he responds with Didier Deschamps, Olivier Echouafni, Jérémy Toulalan. To Mourinho, he retorts with Laurent Blanc or Frédéric Antonetti. He would like to chat with them for a few minutes, ask them for some tactical and human management advice. Thomas takes them as examples. He will take his coaching diplomas. He hopes to follow the path of the Corsican coach of OGC Nice: amatuer player turned professional coach. They are rare: Alain Perrin, Reynald Denoueix, Guy Roux…
Thomas is an ordinary young coach, like hundreds of others in the department. Those who have stopped practicing to dedicate themselves exclusively to coaching are not many. Those with a simple, anti-star discourse, respectful of the rules and the human element are even fewer. One only needs to go to the fields on weekends to see this.
In the midst of the transfer period, a few days before Euro 2008 showcasing soccer icons, Nice Premium wanted to show you another kind of football, one of simple enthusiasts in love with the sport that involves evolving eleven players together where one is nothing without the others, and not ten anonymities tasked with making one shine. The media focus on individuals. The reports forget all the upstream work done by “anti-stars,” less spectacular but essential. Thomas, as well as Olivier Echouafni, Jérémy Toulalan, Yohan Cabaye, Benjamin Gavanon, are examples to be followed and highlighted so that the new generation does not become a generation of individualists.
