(Photo by Pascal Della Zuana/Icon Sport)
He is the one we call “The Green Angel”, even if he doesn't necessarily like this nickname. In L'Equipe, and on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, Dominique Rocheteau looked back on his career, he who was born in Charente-Maritime. He has lived there for almost five years now. On this occasion, the sports daily asked him what he had learned from his. He remembered being courted by the Girondins de Bordeaux at one point.
“What do I remember about my career? Not the titles. Because you are both happy and a little frustrated, sometimes. Like not having won the 1982 World Cup (semi-finals). Not to have gone abroad, too. I wanted England and its football. After discussing with Claude Bez, the president of Bordeaux, and Bernard Tapie, that of OM, I had an opportunity with Ipswich and Chelsea in 1986. That did not happen and I ended up in Toulouse. No, what remains for me of my eighteen years of career are the relationships forged with the world of football and the pleasure we take in seeing each other again, fifty years later, with the Greens of 1976. It's special and it's the most beautiful. This is worth more than a victory in the Champions League. But hey, it's as if we had won it, this 1976 final (0-1, against Bayern Munich). We walked down the Champs-Élysées and were received at the Élysée (he smiles). Ultimately, I feel like I did what I wanted, with a certain freedom.”
