The great Rolland Courbis arrives on the sidelines of⊠the worst amateur team in France! The 72-year-old coach is the star of the new season of the France 3 mini-series The heroes of the lawn (available on France.tv), coming to the aid of Olympique Noves, dead last in D4 of the Grand Vaucluse district, with 74 goals conceded in 15 matches. The anonymous footballers of this small town near Avignon are very happy to receive orders from the very first coach who brought together Bixente Lizarazu, Zinédine Zidane and Christophe Dugarry.
French Football Weekly: Rolland, after your start as a coach in Toulon, you were hired by the Girondins de Bordeaux in 1992, at the age of 39, where the young Bixente Lizarazu, Zinédine Zidane (recruited in Cannes) and Christophe Dugarry played.
Rolland Courbis: First of all, I salute Alain Afflelou for taking me to the Girondins. I succeeded in Toulon, finishing 5th (in 1987-1988)but I had a problem, I did three months of preventive confinement in prison. Afflelou came to see me at Endoume in the third division (in 1991-1992)brought by Jean-Claude Darmon, and Bordeaux takes me knowing that I am something a little special. Besides, I only had the first two out of three diplomas. I hit it off with all the players very quickly. I liked talking to the players all together and taking them one-on-one or three-way or whatever. I was able to get more answers from them. Players express themselves more when they are not in front of their teammates.
Were Zidane and Dugarry receptive to your speech?
Honestly, they were young players who made you want to be a coach. The coaching job is not always fun, there are a lot of things to manage. My little trick is to call the players by a nickname. ZinĂ©dine Zidane was âZizouâ, I didnât think it was going to stay and that he was going to become a Ballon dâOr. I imagined him as a good player, a very good player perhaps, but not as a football legend. I also didn’t think he was going to become a top coach due to some shyness as a player. Dugarry was “Duga”, but it’s not an achievement to call him that.
They were already very friends…
They were close in everyday life but also on the field, in training. They formed a duo for the ball tennis tournaments that I used to organize on the eve of the matches. The problem with this Zidane-Dugarry duo, I don’t know if they lost a lot of sets, but they didn’t lose any matches! With my slightly manic side, I was against three-on-three ball tennis. Two against two, you are a passer and a finisher. Three against three, there was one behind covering, I found the exercise uninteresting, even ridiculous.
After Bordeaux-Bayern in the 96 UEFA Cup.
The use of Zinédine Zidane in 8
You have sometimes used Zinédine Zidane as a defensive midfielder, for what reasons?
I think I wanted to be patient with âZizouâ, I didn’t yet imagine him in a traditional 10, like Platini, in an area with opposing defensive midfielders who don’t do any favors, who risk hitting you from behind. I saw him more as an 8 next to a 6, which was Philippe Lucas. He was an 8 who could become a 10, that saved him from taking too many hits and we played three matches in eight days (Bordeaux played three rounds of the UEFA Cup in 93-94, editor’s note)so I was saving it a little. When he wasn’t the starter, I told him: ‘you start for the last 30 minutes’. It was also a way to make the regular starter you put on the bench smile. For an 8 which started from the middle, Zidane gave us around ten goals and assists. It wasn’t so bad!
After two 4th places in D1, you left the Girondins at the end of your second yearâŠ
I am at the end of my contract in 94 and I apologize again for having been annoyed by the justice system, I do not come to an agreement with the Bordeaux leaders to extend (the Portuguese coach Toni was hired, but he was fired the following March, editorâs note). I’m happy to go to Toulouse, which had just gone down to D2 but which was ambitious. I was lucky enough to be called back by Alain (Affelou) in 1996 to relaunch the team (Lizarazu, Zidane and Dugarry are all transferred, editor’s note).
