SA Mérignac has already played this season against Stade Lavallois. It was September 29, in Mayenne, and the U19s lost 2-0. In the spotlight this Friday (8:45 p.m.), with the first 32nd final of the Coupe de France in its history against the current 6th in Ligue 2, the Mérignac club is nevertheless used to rubbing shoulders with professionals. Since this summer and the fall of the Girondins and Chamois Niortais, he has even been the number one in the Ligue Nouvelle-Aquitaine among young people.
Currently 10th in Group C, the U19s are enjoying a fourth consecutive season in the national championship, a small performance for an amateur entity whose first team plays in Regional 1 (6th division). The U17s, 11th after 15 days, have only come down from the French level once in the last 20 years. The U18s are at the top of the R1 (highest level of the category), the U16s third. Second in the League, the U14s are on track to also bring the U15s, in R2 this year, into the regional elite.
Co-president and at the club since 1967, Bernard Toulouse is also often from the era of “national cadets”. “It has always been the policy” he points out, putting “between 90,000 and 100,000” of the 600,000 euros budget on the remuneration of educators.
Walkway and ceiling
With 782 licensees, the 2nd largest club in New Aquitaine behind… neighbor Mérignac Arlac (858), SAM benefits from its breeding ground. Starting qualitative recruitment in U13, it also benefits from the proximity of the (federal) sports section of the Jean-Daguin high school. Around twenty high school students – players play at SAM (from U16 to U18), even if school card exemptions were refused last summer to integrate some into boarding schools.
Former player trained at the club, educator and now general manager, Jonathan Morlighem is one of two employees, with a team which also includes four work-study students and two civic services. He describes the SAM as a “bridge” between the less structured clubs of the city and possibly the professional centers. Now the best known example, Jacques Ekomié started in L1 at Angers this season after playing for the SAM national U17s and U19s then the Girondins. Striker Lucas Reynaud (16 years old) had signed for the Marine et Blanc before having to bounce back to Brest. Goalkeeper Thomas Sajous (16 years old) is in U19 in Lille, defenders Robien Druelle (16 years old) and Saliah Koné (17 years old) in Strasbourg and Montpellier.
For the first time, at the end of July after the defeat, it was the Girondins who knocked on the door in U16 and U17. Several were integrated, others refused “because we had signed up with other players”. From there to wanting to occupy the void left by the neighbor of Haillan, there is a course called “means”. “We are at a ceiling. We want to surpass it but we need to improve and further strengthen the supervision, says Jonathan Morlighem. When we train three times a week, young people from professional clubs do it 5 times, with more specific sessions. »
A look at the finances, Bernard Toulouse sees that the packages of the Girondins and Niort place the shortest trip of the U19s to… Nantes. The U17s, if they meet Villenave d’Ornon and Marmande, go as far as Marseille and Lyon. And the facilities (4 11-a-side pitches, a field for 5-a-side football) are saturated, forcing “to refuse people every year”, while waiting, they hope, for a covered stand with changing rooms during the next municipal term.
Just bonuses
The arrival this season of Christian Lasalle as co-president aims to share the tasks in particular to boost the private partnership part (70,000 euros). The check for the Cup adventure – 43,000 euros assured and 5,000 or 10,000 euros in profits expected this Friday depending on whether Laval leaves its share of the revenue – will bring a momentary plus.
Seniors in all this? With five young people having trained at SAM, 7 of last season’s national U19s integrated into the senior group, 4 of whom play regularly in R1, they are taking advantage of it. But the limit is statutory: section of a multi-sports club which provides security (and this season pays 120,000 euros in public subsidies), SAM football is prohibited from contracting players. “Here, we don’t pay except for a victory bonus,” says Bernard Toulouse. The idea of moving away with a separate structure, like women’s handball or Burdi’s (volleyball), is a sea serpent for the moment dormant.
Going up to N3, a level not reached since 2012, would on the other hand be a step towards keeping certain elements who left to taste the level above at Stade Bordelais or Lège. It could make the 2024-2025 vintage a doubly historic year.
