On December 15, Christophe Galtier will be tried in Nice for discrimination and moral harassment when he coached Nice during the 2021-2022 season. The affair broke out after the revelation by independent journalist Romain Molina, then by RMC, of an email addressed to the management of the Nice club by former sports director Julien Fournier, with whom Galtier had execrable relations.
This Tuesday, The Team revealed that the police have collected incriminating testimonies against the current technician of Al-Duhail, in Qatar, who has always denied having discriminated against Muslim players. If the searches and computer analyzes of Galtier’s computer yielded nothing conclusive, assistant coach Frédéric Gioria was more forthcoming. This former iconic player of the club, winner of the 1997 Coupe de France, confirmed having heard Galtier mention the now famous anecdote from the restaurant, where people complained that the team “didn’t look like the city” because it counted a lot black or North African players.
Galtier accused of targeting Algerians
Gioria also assured that Galtier had declared “Another Muslim, I don’t want it, we’ve had enough”, when the Franco-Algerian Billal Brahimi was recruited in Angers. “The worst are the Algerians”, would also have launched the former PSG coach (2022-2023), who would have treated Youcef Atal and Hicham Boudaoui, internationals with Algeria, “dirty guys”.
Another witness, Hachim Ali Mbaé, video analysis of Nice at the time, today in Strasbourg, told investigators that Galtier had told him one day that the Algerians “are too extreme” in terms of ‘Islam. The testimonies collected by The Team highlight the technician’s tensions in relation to Ramadan. Boudaoui, like French international Jean-Clair Todibo, told investigators that they had been pressured to break their fast on match days. Todibo also explained that acquaintances had told him that his trainer described him as a Salafist.
If the accusations against Galtier concern above all his supposed behavior towards North African and Muslim players, Hachim Ali Mbaé also mentioned another statement from his former superior, at half-time of a Nice – Saint-Etienne match. Galtier would have spoken of the “two King Kongs” regarding Saint-Etienne defenders Harold Moukoudi and Mickaël Nadé. Other people questioned by the police, such as midfielder Khéphren Thuram, assured that they had never witnessed discrimination on the part of their former coach.
Contacted by The TeamGaltier’s lawyers declared that their client “finally awaits this public and contradictory debate [le procès du 15 décembre] where he will demonstrate that he has obviously never discriminated or harassed anyone. »