On the bench of Olympique de Marseille in the Europa League in Amsterdam (3-3) on September 21, alongside interim coach Jacques Abardonado, David Friio will be this Wednesday (9 p.m.) at the Vélodrome stadium with the costume of sports director of the Lyon rival. Because yes, the famous “everything goes very quickly in football” does not only apply to players but also to managers and recruiters. Respectively responsible for recruitment, technical director then sports director since 2020 at OM, this former recruiter… of AS Saint-Etienne (from 2017 to 2020) marks by joining Lyon the ultimate twist in an Olympico taking place behind the scenes for five months.
The new recruitment director Matthieu Louis-Jean (47 years old), then the recruitment coordinator Benjamin Charier, and finally two or even three scouts (Thomas Maurin and Mathieu Seckinger, pending the officialization of Omar Sciolla) were also all in position in Marseille last season, under the inevitable Longoria-Ribalta tandem. How can we explain that almost the entire OM recruitment unit was so quickly transposed into this OL in crisis (18th in Ligue 1)?
“We should not see it as a failure or a betrayal”
“Football is a market like any other,” says OM. It’s not as if our general manager or our president was heading to Lyon… There, there is everything to rebuild within the recruitment unit, so it’s normal that it attracts people. David Friio joins a team he built in Marseille. It should not be seen as a failure or a betrayal. There is no non-competition clause, and as soon as they are on the market, these recruiters are driven out. There was a need for renewal among us, and their arrival in Lyon proves that we had not relied on incompetent guys. »
Convinced by his discussions with John Textor, David Friio (50 years old) officially signed up with OL on Friday, with “as initial mission the designation of the next head coach of the professional team, at the end of the interim by Pierre Sage. A responsibility as unprecedented for him as is in Ligue 1 the virtual transfer of a recruitment unit from one Olympic team to another. Former head of recruitment at Stade de Reims, Enzo Djebali sees this as the ultimate example of a change of era regarding recruitment management in professional football.
“It doesn’t bother me that all these recruiters come from OM”
“For a long time, we have seen former players or educators very attached to their club become recruiters, like Jean-Philippe Durand at OM,” he says. Today, this function has a dispassionate and depersonalized side. My fear is that recruiters will definitely acquire the same precariousness as coaches by being all on fixed-term contracts and interchangeable. » They are no more supporters of OM than of OL, so they have even fewer complexes about dealing with their rival than Mathieu Valbuena did in his time. Five months ago, before joining him at OL, Thomas Maurin told us about Matthieu Louis-Jean: “He will be able to transpose his in-depth work and his observation of the markets to Lyon, which has more or less the same financial capabilities as OM”.
Hence the possible arrivals at OL of players that this recruitment unit was already tracking when it was stationed in Marseille, and even former elements of OM such as Duje Caleta-Car, who arrived in August. Enough to worry Lyon supporters who are both attached to a history very far from that of OM, and waiting in the short term for players scheduled to fight to stay in Ligue 1.
It’s certain that if it’s to bring Konrad de la Fuente back to us this winter, it won’t work, says Richard ironically, a regular at Lyon’s southern bend. The easy solution for these recruiters would be to stay on tracks already launched in Marseille. I’m not bothered by that if they rely on guys with character, especially a leader in the middle. It is certain that in another context, where we would be less worried about our sporting results, it would really concern me to see all these guys arriving who do not represent the spirit of our club. There, given the mess, anything that can contribute to restructuring is positive, even if it is six months late. »
A comment shared by another Lyon supporter, Frédéric (44 years old): “Personally, it doesn’t bother me that all these recruiters come from OM. The only question that concerns me is the competence of the people in office. I am less bothered by the principles than by our results and the indecipherable or even catastrophic summer transfer window.
“An emergency situation” in the winter transfer window
To avoid sinking into Ligue 2, and while the DNCG sanctions in this area were relaxed on Tuesday evening (the club will be able to recruit for around €50 million next month), OL will clearly need recruits this winter with a contribution much higher than that of Mama Baldé, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Duje Caleta-Car or Paul Akouokou. “It is precisely because there is an emergency situation in the next transfer window that OL has relied on this team of recruiters used to working together [à Manchester United avant l’OM pour la plupart], in order to be effective,” estimates Enzo Djebali, now Europe scout for FC Dallas (MLS). For the latter, “there is now as much a strategic challenge in forming a recruitment unit as in establishing a technical staff”.
According to him, the explosion of data also explains the emergence of these “dispassionate” and largely rejuvenated recruitment cells, if we take the example of Lyon. The historic Michel Rouquette (73 years old) and Alain Caveglia (55 years old) have just been replaced by the thirty-year-olds Benjamin Charier, Thomas Maurin and Mathieu Seckinger. Everyone will experience their first Olympico this Wednesday in the camp opposite, and with the specter of Ligue 2 hanging over their heads.