First exceptional guest of the new season of the show Rothen s’enflamme On RMC, Jonathan Clauss returned this Monday to his departure from Olympique de Marseille to Nice during the summer transfer window. The French full-back also addressed the question of his future with the Blues after Euro 2024 where Didier Deschamps’ tactical choices were targeted.
Hello Jonathan Clauss, you are the first guest of the season in Rothen s’enflamme. How are you?
Hello, hello everyone! I’m doing very well, thank you.
You have resumed the season, we are going to talk about your beginnings in Nice. How do you find yourself?
I am in full preparation where others are already ready. I continue to train well and to build up my physical strength because I arrived a little late. Of course, I had planned this a little but it has been almost two months without competition so it takes time to find my marks physically. It will happen again and again, with hard work. But otherwise I feel good and I am gaining momentum. I will need more time, I think, to get into the rhythm of a few matches and it will go very well.
You are already a goalscorer so for confidence it is important…
Yes, for my personal confidence and especially for the group too. Arriving at a new club and a new team, there are inevitably expectations. I have some on my side but I think they have some on theirs. And of course scoring, especially for the first at home, feels good but I know there is still a lot of work to do.
What are your personal and collective ambitions? Because you are arriving in Nice where we have heard a lot in recent months about the change of strategy. Recruiting a French international like you from Marseille was a big coup for Nice, it still shows the ambitions…
Yes, I think that the club’s objectives or in any case the OGC Nice project is very clear. They want to be European season after season and they have clearly mentioned it. Afterwards, my personal objectives are, as I have always said, to put myself at the service of a collective to achieve the club’s objectives. And to try to be as efficient as possible throughout the season by having a big season in the championship and in Europe. And to continue to work again and again because I think that I still have a lot to learn.
“Aiming for European places”
The objective with Nice, is it the top 4 or the top 5?
Honestly, I think it’s still too early to say. We have a very young team and despite everything some experienced players. Unfortunately, we already have a lot of injuries. It’s still difficult to gauge at the start of the championship. Afterwards, we need time for everyone to get used to the system as well as the needs and desires of the coach. For everyone to integrate things correctly and for us all to integrate with each other. And I think it would be too early to say top 4 but it’s certain that we would all like to aim for European places.
This choice to join Nice, is it above all for Franck Haise who met you at Lens and who revealed you at the highest French level?
First of all, no. But it was definitely part of the equation. Obviously, it’s always easier to arrive at a club where you know the staff. But then, the project is interesting and the staff is too. The ambitions were clear and I think that to continue to flourish in this French championship, it ticked all the boxes. And with Europe, obviously, to continue to exist on the European scene I think that seemed very important to me. That’s basically why I made this choice.
Nice is today presented as a great French club, with a beautiful region, a beautiful city and infrastructures… Did this calm, it seems calmer than at Olympique de Marseille, reassure you in your choice?
Let’s say that it was especially important for me to be able to refocus on work and on why I do this job or why I want to do this job. Of course, things have happened in the past, but it made me grow. And I also needed to find myself in this work on a daily basis. And to be able to flourish completely in another pattern and in another environment. Today I still see it on a daily basis, it does me good. It’s different but that doesn’t mean it was negative in Marseille. It’s just different and it’s precisely a new challenge, a new step. And I found, as I said, everything I was looking for in Nice, so that’s why I wanted to flourish in this project.
“I respected OM’s decisions without wanting to cause trouble”
You have an atypical career, discovering the top level late. In the end, it went quickly for you and as you skipped the stages, logically given your performances, perhaps the Marseille context was different. Now you arrive in a different context in Nice and you perhaps also needed to refocus with a calmer context. But it’s not shameful to say it, there are players who have trouble acclimatizing and respecting that we talk about them every day, with pressure… Perhaps in Nice, this challenge will be similar to the one you experienced in Lens…
Yes, maybe, maybe. Afterwards, concerning Marseille, I knew and I wanted to discover this context. Otherwise I would not have decided to sign there. And despite everything, with hindsight I still found a lot of positive things there. We also discussed it with OM, I needed, like them, for an agreement to be reached so that I could find a new challenge. I respected the decisions of Olympique de Marseille without wanting to make a fuss. And in the end, yes it is sure that it is a new life. It is yet another life, because each time you change clubs you change the atmosphere, you change the context and you change everything. It makes you grow and it makes you evolve. But I find that all of this is extremely positive. And that is what I keep from all the experiences I have had in the different clubs.
And then we must remember that when you arrived in Marseille, you were a young French international who came from Lens and who had offers from clubs even bigger than Olympique de Marseille, even financially, and that you refused them to sign for Marseille. It’s because you knew the context and you wanted to get involved in it…
Of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have made that choice. But in the end, looking back now, it allowed me to grow, to discover the Champions League, to discover the Europa League. In an ultra-special context but which is grandiose despite everything. That’s why I made that choice at that time. I wanted to discover this legendary club.
And precisely, which big clubs wanted you? Can you give us some names?
Oh, when was that? It was two years ago…
Normally, you don’t forget that. Twenty years later, you still remember it…
It’s true that I had discussions with Atlético Madrid. But once again, the speeches were clear and they wanted me from the start. And I made my choice immediately. When I decided something, it was like that. And then when I decided to go to Nice, it didn’t matter elsewhere or not elsewhere, as I had personally decided to go to Nice. I had made this choice in my head and it was clear. That’s why I left so quickly.
No criticism of the Blues’ play
Jonathan, I would also like to talk about the French team since you experienced your first international competition during Euro 2024 and it is still something significant for a football player. When you signed for Nice, you were no longer 20 years old, did you still think about the French team by telling yourself that you were staying in a club that was at the top of the table and where you found a coach who knew you perfectly? Did you tell yourself that it would give you a chance to stay in the French group or did you first want to have fun and enjoy your last years in Nice?
No, I think it’s necessarily linked. Really when I came out of this Euro, even without having played, we know the luck and the happiness of being there as well as the exception of being there. And inevitably when signing, I always kept that in mind by telling myself that I had to be able to continue to play, that I continued to perform, that I showed myself again on the European stage with the Europa League. In any case, the French team will come and will only continue to come if I am really focused on my football and really applied, if I perform. Afterwards, the coach will make his choices.
Did you speak to Didier Deschamps on the phone about this decision to join Nice?
No, not even. But I think there was no need to discuss it. He will call me only if he thinks I am performing. And if I am not, if I want to go back, it will be up to me to redouble my efforts to go back.
What did you think of the criticism of Didier Deschamps’ game at the Euro, where we can’t say that we had a blast watching the Euro, except for Spain and sometimes Germany? The French team, you weren’t flamboyant… Are you able to self-criticize on that?
Honestly no because I stay focused. I don’t have anything in particular to say about the criticism. Everyone thinks what they want unfortunately, and today many people say what they want to say. I don’t have anything in particular to say about that.
Interview by the program Rothen s’enflamme
