It was while watching Roland Garros on TV that Bertrand Rioux’s life changed. a little over 42 years ago. “I was watching a tennis match when I answered the phone” says the man who was only 20 years old and was preparing to become a sports teacher in Lyon. “I didn’t know where Montferrand was on the map of France, and I already had a meeting scheduled with Valence Sportif where everything was destined for me”. But that was without counting on the persuasiveness of his interlocutor. It was therefore Michel Ringeval, the emblematic ASM coach at the time, who convinced him to wear the yellow and blue jersey. And Bertrand Rioux will proudly wear it 271 times, often as team captain.
An entire and busy career at ASM
He played his last match at Michelin in 1993. A match he should not have played after the only red card of his career received in Toulon two weeks earlier. “Normally, it was a two-week suspension, and when I left Mayol I told myself that I was ending my career there and that it was unfair, even if a red card at Mayol always looks good on a CV”. The clemency of the federation for a player with exemplary behavior throughout his career, with the agreement of the Béglais, “who agreed that I play my last match at home”allowed him to say goodbye in front of his audience. “I came out, not expelled at Mayol, but with a concussion and an open skull with a defeat at the Michelin, but it was still better.”
After a playing careerBertrand Rioux will become a coach, which remains one of his greatest memories to this day. “The epic in 1994, it was really very strong, the revival of the ASM, with Victor Bofelli who had just arrived, Patrick Boucheix and Dominique Sauzade, we experienced an incredible adventure despite the two defeats in the championship final and the Yves-du-Manoir challenge, and then 2010 with the two youth titles and the first among the pros, it was the peak of the club, we were the Toulouse of today since we had won everything “.
A temple guardian
Director of the training center, and of the section and the rugby section, Bertrand Rioux will have marked the history of the club with the players of his generation, like Philippe Saint André. “He’s the ideal son-in-law.” laughs the gorret, “always well dressed, smart, smart, a real scrum-half, a very good player and he also trained me for the two finals in 94”. An ideal son-in-law, but a formidable opponent in tarot, remembers Gilles Darlet, the club’s former full-back. “I have memories of memorable beatings at the back of the bus against Bertrand, his nickname was the jester, but in tarot cards he counted the 4 colors, and made us red with anger.”
Now retired, Bertrand Rioux will join the director office of the Association of ASM Alumni. And if he has kept a bit of the Gone accent that he was, the ASM can congratulate itself on having counted in its ranks an extraordinary player, captain, educator, coach, and leader.
