Freshly appointed coach of Stade Rennais in place of Bruno Genesio, Julien Stéphan was invited to appear before the media this Friday, two days before the Reims reception. The opportunity for the 43-year-old coach to announce a change of captain. The armband was thus removed from Benjamin Bourigeaud, replaced by Steve Mandanda;
“I will change, it will be Steve Mandandaconfided the former Strasbourg coach. It’s absolutely not against Benjamin. He’s a club legend, Bourig’. Since the time he has been there, everything he represents, the title he won (the Coupe de France in 2019), his number of matches… But I felt that Steve, through his experience, the number of years he was captain at Marseille, it was a decision to make. »
“It is not a desire to change for the sake of change”
And Julien Stéphan added: “We discussed several times (with Bourigeaud), not only on this subject. It happens in a very natural way. When we decide to put a goalkeeper as captain, we must anticipate the fact of having field captains during the match who will be Bourigeaud and Matic, explained Stéphan. It’s absolutely not against Benjamin. It is not a desire to change for the sake of change, it is an analysis of the situation, after discussions, which led me to think and make this decision. »
