Jérôme Gnako did not have a great career and a serious knee injury even removed him from the field from the age of 28. But this athletic right environment was one of the first players tried by Aimé Jacquet. For his first match at the head of the French team, in February 1994, against Italy (1-0 victory), the tricolor coach set out Gnako alongside Youri Djorkaeff, David Ginola and Éric Cantona in the offensive sector.
Trained at the Girondins de Bordeaux, Gnako revealed himself in French D1 with Angers and had his first tricolor selection in October 92 under the orders of Gérard Houllier. It was by joining AS Monaco that he became an excellent player in the championship, especially during the 1993-1994 season (9 goals in 33 games). At 25, he shines alongside Youri Djorkaeff, Enzo Scifo and Jürgen Klinsmann, with Lilian Thuram and Emmanuel Petit in the team.
Jérôme Gnako stands between Jean-Luc Ettori and Marcel Dib.
“My reference match was the famous Monaco match in Marseille where he (coach Arsène Wenger, editor's note) announced the team and left. Especially the first half of this match. The Marseille public, it has always heated me. It is on this match that I have my selection with Jacquet because he is in the match. I di Meco in front of me, which was taken too! »»recalls Jérôme Gnako in a recent episode of Legends podcast.
Emmanuel Petit injured
The Monegasque team has taken a little plane to enter the Vélodrome and Gnako stadium recounts a sacred mishap: “We almost died on a plane, we almost broke up by plane!” We ask ourselves the question of why we started by plane, we almost stayed there. There was a big problem … I think Manu Petit had opened his head. It was a crazy thing, we thought we were going to fall. An air hole from I don't know how many meters, we were all glued to the ceiling … “
And to continue: “There are some who were crying, there were some who wanted to jump, there are one or two who were on the verge of suicide. There were some that we were forced to sit down, who wanted to go out … It was hot! But it was weird, it didn't last very long. There were two or three fairly strong jolts, and it was felt that the plane fell 300 meters. All the sets fell everywhere … Manu Petit opened their heads ”. More fear (and crying) than evil, therefore.
