Football will always remain a game that brings people together. It doesn’t matter where you come from and it doesn’t matter what you do. Add “a game to the game” and sprinkle everything with a little “eternal Gym” and you get an unusual little story that we love…
A short story with a big starting point: the Nice – Saint-Etienne dating from September 20. For the 120th anniversary of the club, Franck Haise and his men entertained and gave us a historic 8-0.
Every supporter goes to bed with a smile and gets up with a banana. Amid collective joy, one of them has even just won a collector’s jersey thanks to the Aiglons League: Gilles van Kote. Inspired, efficient, precise, Gilles readily admits that he had “saw neither the 6-0 at half-time nor the 8-0 final”. On the other hand, the other predictions on dribbling, balls touched or even duels won by Ndombele, he sees them coming. Better than anyone. Very quickly, the club’s teams had the pleasure of discussing with him the methods of sending his present. Very quickly, these modalities open the doors to his past for us…
“It all started with a Panini sticker”
His name quickly alerts us. Some research amplifies this echo: our player from the Ligue des Aiglons is a big name in the press. A journalist with a brilliant career, he is currently “delegate director of reader relations” at Le Monde, which he joined in 2000 and where he has held numerous positions. But how, on earth, did he end up competing with the other OGC Nice lovers in a big prediction competition? “Because of a Panini sticker when I was 10…”he replies, readily admitting the side « improbable » of the thing and getting to the heart of the matter: “A Dick Van Dijk vignette. He arrived at the Gym from Ajax, the dream club at the time. He had long hair, he had a name not very far from mine, because I have distant Dutch origins. The red and black jersey must also have had an effect. It just started from there…”
He is behind the Wikipedia page dedicated to OGC Nice players
“I have lots of friends who are for the Gym, but I have more merit than them, because they are real people of Nice, unlike me”. The Parisian – by birth and life – becomes a fan of the institution born in 1904. Their common path is punctuated by 1000 stages and 1000 anecdotes.
When Gilles has to write one of his first papers and mention Daniel Bravo, then winner of the 1985 Coupe de France with Monaco, he cannot help but think of the little Prince du Ray. When Albert Emon’s team validated its title of 2nd division French champion in Valenciennes, on May 25, 1994, he was in the Nungesser stands, as when Sylvester Takac’s team lifted the Coupe de France 3 years later at Parc des Princes. Beauvais, Amiens, Rouen, Lens, Reims, Angers, Le Mans: as soon as his club fights in a stadium that is easily accessible to him, if his schedule allows it, he fights with it. He should also be there in Brussels in December.
His passion and his profession have not always taken parallel roads. They have sometimes crossed paths and still cross paths. At Le Monde, where he was deputy head of sports when the club returned to L1 (2002-03 season), he worked with Michel Dalloni… head of sports from the most beautiful city in the world (and former editorial director of L’Équipe, editor’s note)with whom he shares the same love. Their office “is covered with press clippings glorifying the Gym”so much so that Jean-Marc Guillou (166 matches and 14 goals with the Gym from 1975 to 1979)passing through for an interview, is left speechless.
Gilles van Kote is also behind the “Wikipedia” page dedicated to OGC Nice players, the result of long-term work that he refreshes as soon as a new element wears the Aigle jersey in an official match . “I am a gym lover who doesn’t know many people in Nice, he concludes. These players, these coaches, these managers, I have never been around them professionally. I have already been to Nice, to the Ray and to the Allianz Riviera. I have already had the pleasure of speaking with Michel Oreggia, club historian, Place du Palais. But overall, I lived my passion from a distance… and that didn’t stop me from passing it on to my son, who is also Parisian. I am very proud of it! »
Supporters in the spotlight against Monaco
Each match has its own theme to tell the story of OGC Nice. After the Balkan players, it is the supporters who will be in the spotlight during the derby against Monaco. The groups, the figures of the past, the expats. The club will endeavor to collectively pay tribute to all those who have red and black blood. And whose passion gives meaning to these 120 years of existence.
C. Djivas
