At 58, Gilles Boscus, departmental technical advisor, is heading to the Occitanie league and a position of regional technical director on February 1, after more than 30 years of good and loyal service within the Aveyron district. A look back at the extraordinary journey of a man who left a lasting mark and changed Aveyron Football.
“Only in the dictionary does the word reward come before the word work.” It is one of its mottos, also enthroned framed in its future ex-office, at the District headquarters in Onet. The office of Gilles Boscus, this hard worker who has not counted his hours in order to develop local football, today on his way to a regional destiny.
“When I arrived at the District in 1995 as a sports technician under President Enjalbert, I was the only employee with Isabelle (Son). Today there are four of us besides me. We managed to create a real team serving the clubs “, remembers the one who will have known five elected presidents. “I enjoyed each of them. As I told them, President, I need carte blanche. But, be careful, you must be a guarantor of what I do. So we talk about it and we build together. “
Player, educator, elected official then employee
Originally from Sénérgues, the young Gilles Boscus is a player and victim of serious injuries just after he came of age. Knee fracture, then cruciate ligaments twice. Enough to stop his passion on the pitch but not around it. He took the opportunity to obtain his education diplomas and is already a visionary. He was at the origin of the creation of the Dourdou plateau football school with Mejane, Plégat, Solinhac… After a few years, he joined Rodez to coach the youth teams.
In 1992, he joined the District steering committee, elected as a representative of educators. Before becoming an employee as a sports technician in 1995, then becoming a technical advisor in 1998. “It was the same job except that there was no federal assistance to finance the position.“, he explains. He replaces Noël Fraysse who had asserted his retirement rights. Three decades later, the legacy is rich. There are numerous highlights. Many describe the man as a visionary, working for training young people, the training of technicians, the development of rural football or football in primary schools in order to develop the practice in clubs. But he was also involved in the installation of the premises of the Monastery District in Onet,. under the mandate of Arnaud Delpal, and, above all, that the Castonetois site becomes a place for training technicians.
Santa Claus for footballers
What if he himself only had to tell three significant facts? “ There is one in the educational field, it's footballers' Christmas (mass operation combining football and solidarity held every November 11 in Aveyron). I don't like to say I created it, I had the idea. He is 20 years old this year. As I visited the clubs, over time, I realized that there were kids who were in difficulty, with clothing for example. I was wondering how to do it. The turning point came the day I attended a club's Christmas, speaking with a couple who had just arrived in Aveyron and who had put their children at the local football club. I told him, “it’s great” and then they said to me: “our kids have never experienced Christmas, it’s their Christmas”. I left there, I told Laurent (Barnabé, his partner)“we have to do something, it’s not possible”. They told us, but how many must not say it. I was into Restos du coeur, Coluche and all this movement so I got closer to Michel Bringue who was the president of the branch in Rodez and who was my former French teacher at college, a football fan. We worked together to make this happen and use football to give it an educational meaning. “
“Sometimes we lit up with certain people”
Next comes, “sporting action. In two parts: player training and educator training. We had almost no more representation of young people at the regional level, those who would have had an impact later on the senior categories. We therefore created the Naucelle departmental technical center at Saint-Martin college. We had put in place something that was almost professional. Little by little, we managed to recreate a balance and at the same time we worked with the clubs which subsequently took over. This lasted about ten years. And then there was the training of the technicians. We used this first part to train the educators in the clubs by adding follow-up otherwise it would have been useless. ” Finally, “on the associative aspect, this is the relationship that I was able to have with the presidents of any clubreplies Boscus. Not everyone agreed with my vision, sometimes we clashed with some. It's the game, I'm not offended. I've always tried to have the smoothest relationship with presidents. They are the decision-makers. We must not separate families in our clubs. I would also like to thank them for their collaboration.“
-Need for challenge
And regarding the reason for his departure to the Occitanie league, it is still the first interested party who speaks best. “Instead of saying: “we are not going in the right direction”, I said to myself: “do something”. There is a lot to do at League level. I've been at the District for 30 years, I could have left many times. But I considered that I still had things to do here. I'm not saying that I have nothing more to do. Now there is a young team arriving with skills. It will also allow them to flourish. Thirty years is good, it’s a long time, the project was enormous and we did some great things. I am aware that when you are there for thirty years, you take up space, you have to know how to leave the pole to others. I will now implement the national technical policy at the regional level. We are going to build a sports project by territory. It's a big responsibility. Here, I managed four people, there it will be forty. I am a competitor. I have this character and this need for challenge. Emotionally, it's strong. I had not measured this dimension, it is especially since the officialization that the phone has not stopped ringing. It marks me, it touches me, it’s really emotionally strong. “
THEY SAY ABOUT HIM. “He is a visionary”, “he did everything possible for training”
MICHEL PERET — president of the District from 2008 to 2012, current president of the departmental litigation and discipline commission
“I met him in 1992, when he joined the District steering committee before he became an employee. He did everything possible for young people and the training of technicians. He was for the respect of all football families. He always has a lot of ideas, sometimes he had to be tempered. But what's interesting is that he always brings something to football. He is a friendly person, with whom you can talk. He knew his job, football. He has always been for the training of young people. He will leave this worry of being fully involved in training. I will also remember that he participated in the creation of the training center at the Saint-Martin college in Naucelle under President Enjalbert, which saw many young people pass through, including some who had a professional career. »
PIERRE BOURDET — president of the District since 2021
“When he spoke to me (about applying for the League), I told him that given his multiple skills, he had the ability and I encouraged him to do it. I am delighted with this well-deserved nomination. This is testimony to his commitment to football with talent and skills. He has created numerous events such as Footballers’ Christmas which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. And more recently, he was behind the creation of territorial championships. He leaves the mark of someone who developed football on the technical aspect, on the attractiveness, with the development of our players by the PPF (federal performance project). He is a visionary. I express my gratitude to him for his work and all the exchanges we were able to have. We were a collective between employees and elected officials. »
LAURENT BARNABE employee of the District, administrative sector
“In the name of the leader!” After 15 years of collaboration, almost living together at times, sharing our passion and our convictions in the service of football, I will not retain the hierarchical notion that naturally existed. I would rather remember the professional and personal relationship, based on trust, complementarity and complicity, which has developed over time. Certainly, Gilles was a leader but a leader… of visionary and innovative projects for departmental football, which he always defended. If I had to describe him as a leader, it would be an acronym that would summarize some of his values: Competence, Humanism, Demanding, Unifying. There you go, boss, good luck! Without forgetting two anecdotes. First a quote that is dear to him: “Only in the dictionary does the word reward come before the word work”. And when his speech begins with: “Very quickly, I'm going to…”, I can say that I must have a Swiss watch, because I don't have the same notion of time as Gilles. »
ARNAUD DELPAL president of the District from 2016 to 2020, currently elected to the Occitanie league
“I have known him for many years, he even gave me my education diplomas. With him, we have moved forward, particularly with the Footballers' Christmas, the club support program. Also, we managed to ensure that the Onet site became a regional technical training center after Toulouse and Montpellier. For the League, his arrival is a very good thing because he has a global outlook on the territories, the rural environment. He knows Occitania perfectly. It corresponds to the sporting project that we want to implement. He will have left his mark on the District in its structure, especially that of clubs and training. Its mission will be to create a regional technical team. We will once again have to work together on the territorial center. »
