“The certainty is that the club’s policy IN the coming years will turn more and more towards the Norman DNA and the training center”. In the last interview he gave to our colleagues atWest France, Pierre-Antoine Capton hammered home the importance Of training in his project for the Stade Malherbe. But behind the words of the (future) owner of the Caen club, what reality is hidden behind? In a context of budgetary rigor, how is the SMC center doing today? “Normandization”, development of post-training, financial and human resources granted… Throughout the week, the editorial staff NORMAN FOOTBALL dedicates a series of articles on the “Rouge et Bleu” training center.
“I want us to be the Normandy club, to recreate partnerships with all the clubs and to seek out the best young people to train them”. In an interview in the columns ofWest France In mid-March, Pierre-Antoine Capton reaffirmed his desire for local roots for the formation of “his” Stade Malherbe. Let the shareholder of the Caen club be reassured, on the scale of Lower Normandy, its real area of regional influence, this is already the case. Rare are the players with potential from Calvados, Manche and Orne to escape the “Rouge et Bleu” radars. “The football school is doing a lot of mixing. The most promising Caennais are already with us. And in pre-training, we are expanding to the best kids from Calvados before welcoming the Manchois and the Ornais at the entrance to the center “explains Djibi Diao, the youth recruitment manager.
Of course, there are counter-examples like the goalkeeper Paul Argney, originally from the South Channel and who is currently enjoying the good days of neighboring Le Havre, but over the last ten seasons, they can be counted on the fingers of the hand. And in any case, no French club can boast of attracting 100% of young people from 100 km around. “Paul, we followed him, we invited him but at the time, we already had a goalkeeper who came from ASPTT, the same year of age. We asked ourselves the question: “Is -do we take two from the same generation? “There was a debate. We made a choice. We prioritized the boy living in Caen.”remembers Matthieu Ballon, the director of the SMC center.
“Upper Normandy is a market that we watch and know well. We have always signed boys from this sector“
Matthew Ballon
Now, given the low demographics of Lower Normandy, Stade Malherbe cannot rely only on players from its region to fill its training squad. That’s why he also hunts on the other side of the bridge. “Upper Normandy, it is a population area that is much more populated than Basse. It’s a market that we watch, that we know well with Jean-Louis (Mendès, the recruiter for Normandy). Historically, we have always signed boys from this sector”recalls Matthieu Ballon, a reference in particular to the Ebroïcian sector in the 1990s (Mathieu Bodmer, Bernard Mendy) from which he himself comes.
53% Normans, 39% Parisians in training
As it was 30 years ago, it is in Eure that the SMC is most attractive. Cluver Sambi Mbungu and Diabé Kanouté, two of the greatest promises of the Caen team, played at Pacy and Vernon. Clubs with which the “Rouge et Bleu” have excellent relations. Obviously, in these territories, the competition is tougher with the presence, among others, of scouts from Rennes, PSG and even Monaco without forgetting the HAC of course. “Now, we are not stupid. We are not going to recruit at the foot of Le Havre and vice versa”. A sort of gentleman’s agreement between the two main Normandy entities even if, in this case too, there are exceptions.
“We are only two hours away from the largest pool of young footballers in the world. It’s an opportunity, we would be stupid to deprive ourselves of it”
Djibi Diao
Obviously, Stade Malherbe is not limited to the borders of its region. Through Djibi Diao, it is perfectly established in Ile-de-France. “We are only two hours away from the largest breeding ground of young footballers in the world with the metropolitan area of São Paulo in Brazil. It’s an opportunity, we would be stupid to deprive ourselves of it“, says the head of recruitment of the Caen center. Moreover, from William Gallas to Yoan Gouffran via Raphaël Guerreiro, the Norman club has always welcomed hopefuls from the Ile-de-France region, rather successfully, both on a sporting level and However, regularly, in the name of defending a local identity, voices are raised to denounce too many “small” Parisians within the “Rouge et Bleu” structure.
What exactly is it? This season, among the 64 residents of its training center, playing from U16 to the reserve (N3), 39% come from Ile-de-France. The Normans account for more than half (53%). The rest is made up of boys from neighboring regions and abroad (the Belgian Norman Bassette a few years ago, the Ivorian goalkeeper Issa Karakodio today). “The ideal is to have 60% Normans in your training and 30 to 35% Parisians”, indicates Djibi Diao. Suffice it to say that the SMC is not very far from it, knowing that the further down we go in the age categories, the more the propensity of locals increases. “In U16-U17, half of our players (15/30) come from Calvados”, points out Matthieu Ballon. Proof, once again, that on its territory, Stade Malherbe exploits almost 100% of its young potential.
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 Normandy, the Stade Malherbe team cannot do much better){kind=link}