Coupe de France – “All the difference between a good player and a very good player”: Ludovic Blas, the metamorphosis

Armband on the arm, top scorer of his club and regilded coat of arms: Ludovic Blas, often mocked for his nonchalance, seems to have passed into a new dimension. Some will call it the magic of the Cup, where he shines with his efficiency, as evidenced by his double to eliminate Brest and qualify his Canaries in the quarter-finals. Others will speak of a logical evolution for a diamond that took 24 years to polish. Anyway, since the start of the season, Ludovic Blas seems to flourish under the orders of Antoine Kombouaré. Seven goals in Ligue 1, three in the Cup: that’s as many as in the entire previous year.

“Show that I’m serious huh”, he had asked the newspaper L’Equipe during a photo shoot, to communicate about his new state of mind. “I became aware of certain things, of the fact that at a certain level, football is no longer a hobby but a profession. Sometimes I watched my matches and I said to myself: ‘ah yes, anyway, I ‘have a little abused'”.

His smugness behind him, Ludovic Blas finally became the player he had always dreamed of being. Positioned on the right or in a more central position in Antoine Kombouaré’s system, he gives himself the means for his new ambitions. “Before, if the ball did not arrive, I told myself that I went there for nothing. And the next shot, the ball arrived and I was not there”.

Mixed beginnings

Yes, Ludovic Blas managed to go through the stages. Maybe not as quickly as he would have liked, but at 24 he is now one of the strong men of a formation with the right to dream of a title in the Coupe de France and the first roles in Ligue 1 After a first experience in Rambouillet, pushed by “a family in love with football”, he started his career at Montrouge FC, before catching the eye of Guingamp in 2013. But after a first professional contract two years later and a victorious campaign at Euro U19 in 2016 alongside a certain Kylian Mbappé, his meteoric rise comes to a halt. In distress within the Breton club (7 goals in 116 matches), where he plays less and less, the winger is chomping at the bit.

Until the day when FC Nantes decides to make him the most expensive rookie of his transfer window (8 million euros, in 2019). A first exercise in sawtooth but a second… brilliant. Strong man of the Canaries, he became last season one of the artisans of maintenance, and even saved his own by scoring during the first leg against Toulouse (2-1). Having become unstoppable in the formation of Antoine Kombouaré, Ludovic Blas was picked up by a few English teams this winter. But whether it’s Watford or Newcastle, very little for him : “My project is in Nantes. If I signed until 2024, there is a reason. Do not pay attention to rumours”he had taken care to reassure.

A rising career

The Canaries can therefore sleep soundly: Ludovic Blas feels good where he is. And he proves it week after week. Author of the double offering the qualification in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France against Brest at La Beaujoire, he made the good days of Antoine Kombouaré. “Our captain of the day, Ludo, scored two exceptional goals”raved the French tactician, happy to see him flourish alongside Randal Kolo Muani, Nicolas Pallois and Andrei Girotto.

Opposed to Bastia, disappointing 17th in Ligue 2, this Thursday, for a place in the last four, the Nantes team however knows what to expect. “It’s a Cup match, everything is possible. There have already been a lot of surprises, we hope not to fall into the trap”, declared Kombouaré in a pre-match press conference. And to enforce the hierarchy, the latter has no choice. “Thursday, we are going to see the great players, those who want to go further. If our executives are present, that would help us a lot”. Of course, the name of “Ludo Blascame out first as the former PSG coach listed his in-form men.

The Cup as a playground

Because it was he who propelled Nantes into the quarter-finals. Handicapped by a broken hand in December and by a left hamstring injury in early January, Blas regained form at the end of January against Brest in 8th place in the Coupe de France (2-0). A cross shot after an oriented control of the thigh on a long clearance from Nicolas Pallois in the first period, then a second, floating and full axis in the second, which he went to celebrate by throwing himself into the arms of Kombouaré.

“He is enterprising and consistent, that makes all the difference between a good Ligue 1 player and a very good player.” greeted his teammate Samuel Moutoussamy. “It was my evening. I needed it, because I was a little lacking in confidence on the last gesture. It will do me good”, soberly commented on the person concerned, as if he was now waiting for only one thing: to continue to shine, to cross more and more levels.