Passionate about sport, Robin Girou has made it his profession. Affiliated for four years with the Montauban rugby club (Pro D2), since last year he has held the strategic position of team manager, which allows him to be as close as possible to the players on the field.
It seems that luck means winning in combinations of circumstances. Despite everything, a lot of work, Robin Girou can attest to this, he who has always been attracted by the world of sport.
Nothing predestined him to rugby, however. Because Robin Girou is above all a football enthusiast. Until he was 18, he played in all categories of the Onet-le-Château club. As part of his work-study program, which allowed him to validate a Bac +5, he had a job interview at Olympique de Marseille, his favorite team. At the Commanderie, he had “the worst interview of his life, I was so stressed! My passion for this club worked against me because the recruiters thought that I might be too emotional in certain situations.”
Seduced by the cohesion of rugby
This failure serves him well. Especially since a new opportunity is beckoning him. That of CA Brive Corrèze, a rugby club then in the Top 14 and European champion in 1997. He worked there for four months as assistant stadium manager. “The experience was cut short because of the coronavirus,” says the Castonétois.
Despite this hazard, two new formations are interested in his profile: Usap of Perpignan and US Montauban. He opts for the second option, in order to “stay in the area”, as he confides, but also for the new sporting challenge of President Jean-Claude Maillard, which could give him “more responsibilities over time”. A wise choice since, after three years as ticket office manager at the legendary Sapiac stadium, he was promoted to Team Manager in June 2023. “Following a departure, the club wanted to recruit internally. Management thought of me and informed me of this possibility. » His reflection is brief: “I went for it,” he admits. A leap forward in his career, for a sport adept at backward passes.
A difficult but rewarding season
Its mission turns out to be very vast. “Team Manager is a profession that has recently appeared within professional teams,” recognizes the 26-year-old. My role is to remove the extras (logistical, administrative tasks, etc.) from the players, technical staff and my management, to ensure that they focus solely on performance. »
Broader than a simple position of steward, Robin Girou has a highly strategic position. He must manage, for example, the allocations of the club’s sports suppliers, licenses and their approvals with the League and the Federation but also the residence permits of foreign players, the rental of accommodation for new recruits, the reservation of hotels before matches or even the scheduling of preparation courses… Diverse and varied tasks allow him to “work alongside professionals in each field, and to progress professionally, personally and humanly. »
Robin Girou loves this teamwork. It’s a bit like the group’s magic sponge, freeing them from all their troubles. He must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A tiring job in the long run. Especially since last season was exhausting for the Castonétois and his club, because Montauban fought to maintain its position until the very last moments. “A descent would have been dramatic for the city but that’s sport,” confirms Robin Girou. At the start of spring, we had seven defeats in a row, a first in the club’s history. In these moments, you feel like everything is against you. Mentally it was very hard. But given the outcome, I believe that it will still remain one of my best seasons, because we experience crazy emotions! », sums up the one who experiences the matches at the edge of the pitch.
In the meantime, the Castonetois is taking the time to regenerate. Finally he tries, because he already has a hundred emails waiting. “Everything goes very quickly and we are busy all the time,” he says. When we resume (set for July 1, Editor’s note), I will meet the new members of the staff and try to get to know them well, welcome the recruits… All this around a common goal: to get out of this negative spiral and make proud our supporters,” concludes the ambitious Aveyron native.
