The world is small. And that of Rugby even more. At the edge of the pitch, in the staff or in front of the cameras, it is common to find former players.
But some, whether they had to cope without the advantages of professionalism (and therefore worked alongside sport) or whether they benefited from them, chose very different paths.
In this series, Var-morning invites you to return to the “other lives” of several former RCT players, between double careers and unusual reconversions. Find a new episode today.
You could say of him that he had a thousand lives. Widely known for his brilliant career as a player at the Toulon Rugby club (two Brennus) and with the French XV (42 caps, four Five Nations Tournaments won), the man once nicknamed the Barbarian of the harbor has also experienced many activities once the crampons are stored.
President of the RCT from 2003 to 2006, speaker, muse for numerous brands, consultant, commentator for TF1, entrepreneur in the hotel and catering industry (L'Oustaou in Porquerolles, Le Brasseur in La Valette)… Éric Champ readily admits: “The reconversion was a treat.”
And if he lives today like “[il a] desire to live”peacefully, and never too far from Toulon, the original Valettois traveled for a long time in his second career: that of manager. Perhaps the least known, but not the least crowded.
First job in the former Naval Group
It all started at the end of the 1970s, during his training as a technician at the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA). Eric was only 16 when he entered Mourillon for a three-year course. Rugby is still “amateur” and he must therefore ensure a professional future.
“After that, I started working at DCNS (Directorate of shipbuilding)which became Naval Groupremembers the big guy. I was in the repair shops, where we repaired boats, submarines.”
This industrial training would serve him again a few years later, in 1991. The emblematic third row then began the second part of his rugby career. One of his childhood friends, for his part, is the head of a small industrial group “familial”.
“They were interested in my industrial training and my notoriety”confides Éric, who takes this interest as a wonderful “opportunity”. Indeed, the Varois wishes to continue to set foot on the lawns of the French championship. The deal with the company is as follows: “Tu keep playing rugby, and you learn the engineering profession.” It didn't take much to get him to sign.
Assystem, Capgemini, Parlym…
The RCT captain boards the Studia vessel and contributes to its development, particularly in the south and north of France. He will stay there for twenty years.
When the company was bought by the Assystem group, he was even named commercial director of the engineering group, specializing in areas such as nuclear, space and aeronautics.
Then, in 2003, he took charge of one of its subsidiaries, Assystem Facilities. “I found in the management of engineering teams a bit of the management that I had known in rugby, both to undergo it and to carry it out”he assures today.
Yes, but. Despite the charms of Paris, he misses the South. In 2009, Eric returned to the region, and more particularly Aix-en-Provence, by becoming the development director of Sogeti High Tech, an engineering, studies and technical assistance company in high technologies, a subsidiary of the group Capgemini.
“What I really liked during all these years is that we pushed the mushroom!” Again and again, since less than four years later, the Varois is launching one last big challenge within the Parlym industrial group. He then took on the role of manager, responsible for the development of companies in the France division.
“At one point, my best friends were station managers and taxi drivers. And my home was more the airport than my home”Eric laughs, before continuing: “What was very interesting was that there was a real desire for development and conquest on the part of this company and its president. We got along well on that.”
Today, the group is present in around forty countries and carries out projects in the gas, nuclear and renewable energy sectors. “I sold my assets with them some time ago. But I continue to collaborate, even if I no longer have an operational role.”
“One of my driving forces was conquest”
So there remains a crazy journey in this post-rugby season. A journey that saw Éric Champ lead hundreds of men and women. A journey that allowed him to experience a lot “great adventures”.
And which, today, allows him to once again say thank you to rugby: “One of my driving forces, without thinking about money, was conquest. And that by doing things with people you love. The number one link with rugby was that: the notion of conquest I sought out what, in my sporting career, had allowed me to advance in the management of groups and individuals.” A real sea captain, this Barbarian of the harbor.
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