Marginalized, Benoit Costil continues despite everything to advance to the Girondins


Benoit Costil, the goalkeeper of the Girondins de Bordeaux. – Sylvain THOMAS / AFP

  • The Girondins receive Strasbourg this Sunday (3 p.m.) on the occasion of the 31st day of Ligue 1.
  • Once again Benoit Costil will be in the cages. Despite a tumultuous summer, the French international has had a very good season and is staying the course in his bubble.
  • He still hopes to participate in the Euro with the France team while his future with the Navy and White remains very uncertain.

Edit of April 2, 2020 with the denial of the club to read in the box of the article. 20 Minutes however confirms its information from several corroborating sources.

“You are ch…! Put…! »… This rant of Benoit Costil towards his teammates after the Dijon score reduction in the 90th minute while the Girondins were heading that day towards a large victory in Burgundy may have appeared excessive at the time. In reality, he is not at all, especially when you know the guy a little. Beyond spoiling his 13th clean-sheet of the season, the Bordeaux goalkeeper knows too well these little details that make the difference at the top level to let this kind of relaxation pass. Even more so when your team is finally putting an end to a terrible black streak (eight games without a win) with an average of two goals conceded per game during it.

The requirement of the very high level, the international doorman has it. He knows what it is. He has the experience for him at 33 years old. And it is surely thanks to her that Benoit Costil has not pulled out any more at some point this season. However, he saw all the colors. He could have let go completely, but it’s not him. He will settle his accounts when the time comes with whom it may concern. For the moment, this “peerless professional”, as his coach Jean-Louis Gasset describes it, has only one objective: to keep the club in Ligue 1 while the Girondins receive Strasbourg this Sunday (3 p.m.) with seven points ahead of the red zone eight days from the end of the championship

Stabs in the back

Then, it will be time to come back to this season like no other. To put everything back or leave because Benoit Costil has not forgotten what happened last summer. Always cash backstage as in front of the microphone, he is not the type to forgive overnight. It would be too easy for his management who tried for weeks to marginalize him, the captain of this team which has continued to defend the institution since his arrival in 2017. Why? Quite simply because he was the trusted man of Paulo Sousa.

Faithful to the Portuguese coach until the end, he obviously tasted very little his departure last summer. And even less that of the goalkeeper coach and friend, Paulo Grilo. Not necessarily in substance since, as one of his friends points out, in Bordeaux “he has known more coaches (Gourvennec, Bedouet, Poyet, Ricardo, Sousa and Gasset) than seasons”! Benoit Costil ended up getting used to this great instability at the Girondins. No, he was marked by form and the club’s lack of respect for the one who coached him for more than two and a half. That day, the doorman will refuse to answer Frédéric Longuépée, who is surely trying to reach him to explain himself. A crime of lese majesty for the CEO of Girondins. The break is consumed between the two men.

At the same time, Frédéric Longuépée asks his new trainer Jean-Louis Gasset to remove the armband from Benoit Costil. No question of having a pro-Sousa captain, you need a more neutral player like Laurent Koscielny. His gang :

It was not very pleasant. Benoit [Costil] had also had a key role a few weeks earlier in contract negotiations related to the Covid-19 crisis. It’s disappointing but pettiness exists everywhere ”

Gasset provides after-sales service: “I had a discussion about the armband, I prefer it to be worn by a field player and he never told me he wanted to leave” . However, the former Stade Rennais goalkeeper “took a good look at what was going on around and listened to certain interests” because after the Grilo and the armband episodes, there was that of Stéphane Ruffier. With this rumor, maintained by Jean-Louis Gasset himself, of the possible arrival of the future ex-porter of the Greens in Bordeaux to replace him. Here too his entourage recognizes that “it was not pleasant to hear, especially since he has absolutely nothing to envy Stéphane Ruffier. He was touched by all this but he also knows how to put things into perspective. Experience always helps to swallow snakes.

He holds his rank in the storm

From that moment on, Benoit Costil still decides to put himself in his bubble. A natural leader, he withdraws into the locker room, does not give any more interviews, concentrates only on his individual performances: “He has not changed. It’s still the same, just at one time it was used to all the sauces by the club. Sometimes, he did not want to go but he did it for the institution ”, tempers a relative. Luckily for the Girondins, the contact goes well with Fabrice Grange, the new goalkeeper coach. Very well even. Despite this tumultuous summer, it all ended up being reflected on the pitch. The Bordeaux goalkeeper has had an excellent first part of the season. He is even recalled by Didier Deschamps in the fall. Until the end of January, he is the third best goalkeeper by save percentage in Ligue 1 behind Navas and Maignan.

Jean-Louis Gasset then speaks of “a great professional” who “is in the five best French goalkeepers” and who “deserves it”. “Benoit [Costil] is perfect, adds the Bordeaux coach, everything he does suits me very well. There was never any doubt. I did not feel any discomfort ”. If for two months the Girondins have been going through a much more complicated period, the international goalkeeper is still staying the course, like the last match in Montpellier where he avoided a real shipwreck for his team. Clearly progressing in the use of his kicking game in recent seasons, he “has made further physical progress with Fabrice Grange and he has never been so sharp” according to those around him. In the end, he is surely the most consistent Bordeaux player this season.

A (very) uncertain future in Bordeaux

At 33, it is therefore not yet time to put away the crampons for the man in the 355 Ligue 1 games. “He still sees himself playing a few years, explains a friend, he is still very passionate, he has thirsty and he is always full ”. In a corner of his head, Benoit Costil still hopes to go to the Euro in June with the France team even if “it will be difficult now because he knew very well that it was going to be played between Areola and him [l’ex-Parisien a été retenu lors de la dernière liste], recalls a loved one. If it is caught, it will be a pleasant surprise. A good surprise, the goalkeeper still hopes, one day, to have one of the Girondins and his sporting project.

Benoit Costil with Didier Deschamps. – Christian Hartmann / AP / SIPA

Under contract until 2022, he does not know what his future will be like today. “There is no priority at this time,” replies his clan. Benoit Costil has not yet met management to take stock of this subject: “Today, he avoids asking questions. In any case, it is useless to ask questions about the sports project because you will not have an answer! The most important thing is him and his performance ”.

Club management denies

After the publication of our article this Friday on Benoit Costil, the club wanted to react to 20 minutes : “FC Girondins de Bordeaux categorically denies the information indicating that Frédéric Longuépée asked Jean-Louis Gasset to remove the captain’s armband from Benoit Costil. “



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