Pierre Gasly is not limited to car racing. Passionate about football since childhood, he became co-owner of FC Versailles, a semi-professional club playing in the National, the French third division. Gasly started playing football at the age of 5. “I loved it,” he says with a big smile. “Honestly, I still dream about it. The sport itself, playing ball and being with my teammates. And the whole atmosphere of being with your team, going to different locations and challenging other teams from other cities I loved every moment.” tells the Frenchman to our colleagues at Motorsport. “Just this morning, I was saying to myself: ‘I think that the day I retire from F1, I will join a senior team, just to play’. Because it’s really a great, great passion for me,” confirms Gasly. He returned to his level in football: “Well, I’ve clearly lost my touch! [les tentatives de Gasly pour montrer ses talents de footballeur peu avant l’interview n’ont pas vraiment atteint un “bon niveau”, ndlr]. But back then I was good with the ball. We played in the Coupe de France and we had a good qualifying run for a small club.” said the Alpine driver.
Gasly looks back on his investment in a football club
After having decided to partially buy FC Versailles, National’s semi-professional club, Gasly returns to this strong choice:
“As a huge football fan, I always wanted to be involved in the sport. Obviously I wasn’t going to participate in it as a player. But I always had in mind that if one day an offer interesting situation presented itself, I would find a way to get involved The owner who took over FC Versailles last year contacted me at the end of the year because he saw that I was very interested in it. football, that I went to matches a lot and watched a lot of football. They explained to me their project, their vision of the club, what they wanted to do and how. They then asked me if I wanted to. to join them in this project It is obvious that football is a very complex sport but given my knowledge of my sport and my experience working in a high performance environment, they were very keen to understand the standards of. F1 and the way things work here, and in a way to use some of that knowledge and introduce some of those standards within the club. As an athlete, I think that’s also an area where I bring a lot to them. I try to put myself in the player’s place. I can say, “As an athlete, me personally, I need this and that taken care of.” Generally speaking, landlords aren’t that interested in this sort of thing. They consider sport more as a commercial activity, which sometimes prevents them from taking the player aspect into account. But when you know how to get the most out of your players, it translates into performance on the field. The discussions are therefore very interesting. And it’s another look at football, which I didn’t have before, but which I really appreciate.
He concluded by discussing his ambitions with the Yvelines club: “We are in the third division. The short-term goal is to get to the second division, which is obviously very difficult because the competition is very tough. Football is so important, there are a lot of clubs with big players. budgets and big structures It is therefore a great challenge, but we are not going to hide it, it is clear that we want to reach the second division and in the medium and long term, to reach the first. division, which represents a big leap forward that we will be able to make, I hope, in a few years”, confides Gasly who hopes to see his objective achieved within the next few years.
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To summarize
Pierre Gasly is not limited to car racing. Passionate about football since childhood, he became co-owner of FC Versailles, a semi-professional club playing in the National, the French third division. Gasly notably returned to this strong choice.
