Since the beginning of the Galtier affair, two camps – more or less well informed and more or less involved – oppose each other. On the one hand, there are those who defend the former coach of the Aiglons and who speak with their faces uncovered, and there are many of them, and the others, those who are more or less forced to remain silent, and who seem to have things to say about Galtier and his vision of Muslim players practicing Ramadan. While a judicial investigation opened by the Nice prosecutor’s office is underway and the main interested parties, players, managers and employees of OGC Nice are reserving their testimonies for the investigators, it is impossible for the moment to separate the true from the false.
At this stage, in fact, there is nothing to confirm that Christophe Galtier was not guilty of the words that Julien Fournier reproached him for in the email sent to Dave Brailsford at the end of last season. And the many testimonials of support for the Marseillais, arguing that he had never had the slightest problem in thirty years of career on this subject are not worth proof that he was not at fault during his time at Nice.
Galtier had asked for (and obtained) the head of Fournier
Waiting for tongues to loosen, or not, 20 minutes chose to dig into a particular event in the 2021-2022 season from Nice which, according to several concordant sources, marks the definitive split in relations between Christophe Galtier and Julien Fournier: the transfer of young Billal Brahimi, who arrived from SCO d’Angers in the last days of the 2022 winter transfer window, for a sum of around seven million euros.
The context of the time? In the race for qualification for the Champions League at mid-season (Nice is second in the championship at the break), Christophe Galtier, whose relations had already been strained with Julien Fournier during the first summer transfer window, is calling for one or two players. of experience to complete his line of attack and continue to dream of qualifying for C1 at the end of the season. Instead of that, it is therefore a player with a completely opposite profile, counting in all and for nine small matches in Ligue 1 (including three tenures) and 334 minutes of effective play at the highest level, who puts his bundle in the south.
On the side of the Galtier clan, as revealed by Nice morning, the news makes you wince, especially at this price for a player with such a light CV. “A replacement for Angers (…) for eight million euros, you had to think about it”, is it ironic then in the entourage of the Marseillais. who has never ceased since the beginning of the affair to brandish this transfer as a counter-fire to the accusations of racism launched by Fournier. This is also what makes one of our sources close to the Parisian coach tick:
It is still extremely disturbing. You have a boy who arrives in January in Nice, Brahimi, bought by Angers a few months earlier for 1.3 million in Reims, who does not start in Angers and who is sold four months later for 7 million euros . That’s wonderful ! Buying a player who hasn’t proven anything at that price, you still have to be pretty tough. However, it is Fournier who manages this affair alone, and this is where the real tensions with Galtier begin. »
Asked about the surprisingly high price of this transfer during the press conference presentation of the player, on February 4, 2022, Julien Fournier specifies that the amount mentioned by the journalist only “concerns (him)”: “The market, on these positions, is extremely complicated, he justifies. These players, with quite rare qualities, are extremely expensive. I know, finally, I think that the investment we made is not expensive. “However, there are a few in the community wondering where the trick is: “There is a clear and clear confusion in this affair”, blows a well-informed agent.
Investigation opened by the Bobigny prosecutor’s office
An opinion shared by the magistrates. According to our information, the transfer of Billal Brahimi from Angers to Nice is in the sights of justice. It is part of the large-scale investigation (not only concerning the SCO) launched by the Bobigny prosecutor’s office for suspicion of illegal exercise of the profession of sports agent and money laundering in an organized gang. Concretely, the investigators are wondering, among other things, if the price of the player has not been inflated to allow, through a skilful game of kickbacks, to crunch the many intermediaries prowling around the young Brahimi. A practice as old as football business, but which is nonetheless illegal.
This investigation led to the search of the premises of the Angevin club twice, on June 14, 2022 and January 3, 2023, and to the placement in police custody of the former president of Angers Saïd Chabane. Four other defendants were heard by the investigators, one of whom, Jalal Benalla, allegedly allowed, according to Saïd Chabane himselfthe arrival of Brahimi from Reims to Angers.
The relationship between the two men is troubled, like the exact role of Benalla within the SCO. A sports advisor, he is suspected by the courts of having played the intermediary in this transfer and several others when he had no agent license. He had been integrated into the recruitment cell of the Angevin club on September 1, 2022 “to clarify the situation”, had justified the club at the time, before resigning three months later. Despite this hasty departure from the Angevin organization chart, would he also have participated in any way in the transfer of Brahimi from Angers to Nice? It will be up to the courts to decide.
Asked by 20 minutes, he denies having played any role in the case. “I was heard because I was close to Angers, but there was nothing special against me, assures Jalal Benalla. They didn’t come for me, they came for Angers. “A version opposite to that of the legal director of the Angevin club, Pierry Fumanal. During a press conference organized on January 4, the day after the second search, the latter affirmed that Benalla was one of the two people targeted, with the former legal director Valentin Harribey (dismissed for serious misconduct at the beginning of November), as one recalls article ofWest France released in early April. Contacted, Pierry Fumanal did not respond to our requests.
A very cumbersome entourage for the young striker
Benalla, former judoka for the France team and then sparring partner of Teddy Riner, denies any involvement in the SCO transfers. “I was more about physical preparation, nutrition, support, everything related to performance,” he says. He also claims that he has not been the subject of any legal proceedings since he was heard by the police. According to our information, he was nevertheless summoned on April 6 for a hearing of determination before the 15th chamber of the criminal court, scheduled for June 7 next.
In his book It’s not just football, published in 2022, the president of the Stade de Reims Jean-Pierre Caillot for his part described in detail the complicated entourage of Brahimi, with whom Julien Fournier and OGC Nice must have had to deal. The words of the president of Reims are interesting here to understand the environment of Billal Brahimi and the way in which his advisers operate. He thus evokes “a boy steeped in talent, but whose agents are difficult to control”. “When the playing time is not in line with their expectations, it is harassment and threats. We have to ask them for a way out, hence this transfer to Angers, ”he continues. Despite numerous reminders, the Reims club and its president did not wish to respond to our requests for additional information.
Fournier’s “very, very sulphurous” reputation
According to the entourage of the Parisian coach, the beginning of Galtier’s problems with his dressing room for questions possibly related to Ramadan, during the second part of last season, corresponds exactly to the moment when the relationship became strained with Fournier because of the Brahimi episode. ” Fournier had his hands on a number of players he had brought in before Christophe and, by the greatest coincidence, it was when he asked Ineos for Fournier’s head that it started to go wrong. to get tense between him and some of his players”, deciphers an intimate of “Galette”, specifying that, “in the middle, the reputation of Fournier is, very, very sulphurous”.
This is also what the current coach of Brest Eric Roy, former sports director and coach of the Gym, suggested last week. “I know the two protagonists well, having played with one (Galtier) and worked with the other (Fournier), the whistleblower. It was I who brought him to OGC Nice and I know his methods, did he declare. I am not surprised that Christophe Galtier, if he has been in conflict with him, finds himself in the middle of such a case. Knowing the two characters, I will therefore put more doubt on the whistleblower. “Very discreet since the affair broke out, Julien Fournier perhaps does not want us to dwell on certain old files either.