Golazo, the Sports.fr podcast, returns in its latest episode to the magnificent European epic of AS Saint-Etienne until the final of the 1976 Champion Clubs’ Cup, lost to the great Bayern Munich of Franz Beckenbauer. This great story completely revolutionized French football, then very moribund. Before being the coach of the 98 world champion French team, Aimé Jacquet became a legend of the Greens but was not part of the greatest page in the history of the Saint-Etienne club.
This native of Forez was a young semi-pro at ASSE (milling worker at the same time) then middle boss, thus winning the French D1 five times, in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970! In 1971, the departure of several players for OM caused the club’s president, businessman Roger Rocher, to break down. The latter decides to entrust the reins of the team to Robert Herbin, a 33-year-old defender who agrees to retire. The leaders want to rely in particular on the young people from the center who won the Gambardella Cup the year before.
Aimé Jacquet dismissed at 31
The strategist Robert Herbin will then build a war machine with two foreign cracks, the Yugoslav goalkeeper Ivan Curkovic and the Argentine stopper Oswaldo Piazza (spotted in Lanus by the recruiter/sports director Pierre Garonnaire), and therefore a slew of young players: Christian Lopez, Pierre Repellini and Gérard Janvion in defense, Dominique Bathenay, Christian Synaeghel and Jacques Santini in the middle, Patrick Revelli and Christian Sarramagna on the wings, to accompany playmaker Jean-Michel Larqué, left winger Georges Bereta and the scorer Hervé Revelli (big brother of Patrick). Aimé Jacquet did not resist the new generation and, at the age of 31, joined the enemy Lyon in 1973. Among Les Gones, he was also overtaken by more fiery circles…
During this time, the Stéphanois achieved the cup-championship double in 1974 and 1975, reaching the semi-finals of the 75 Champion Clubs’ Cup, eliminated by Bayern Munich of “Kaizer” Beckenbauer but also of Sepp Maier and Gerd Müller. It was during the 1975-1976 season that ASSE, led by the great revelation Dominique Rocheteau, reached the C1 final, notably in the wake of a remontada
epic against Dynamo kyiv in the quarter-final return (2-0 in the USSR, 3-0 at Geoffroy-Guichard). For a final lost 1-0 against the same Bayern, after hitting the crossbar twice. The famous “square posts” of Glasgow…
