Lamine Sané: “There was Liverpool, Milan, West Ham. Jean-Louis Triaud told me 'out of the question'. Besides, there was Marseille too, but he didn't tell me about it…”

For “At the heart of the game”, the former central defender of the Girondins de Bordeaux, Lamine Sanéanswered the question of when he realized he was a professional gamer.

“It’s after 100 matches. It was Éric Bédouet who told me, he was just telling me… As soon as I arrived, he told me 'don't think you're a pro, don't think you've done crazy things. When you have played 100 matches, you will be able to say that you are a professional. Frankly, it was good advice because I could have gone straight away, with the Champions League from the start, the big bonuses… In addition, I had a contract that was very well thought out by my agent: I played five matches and my salary doubled. After two months, they stopped that (laughs). But yes, after a hundred matches, that’s the point where you generally have a full season or even two.”

In any case, he was courted by several clubs before leaving the Girondins much later.

“At that time, I never hid it, the English championship attracted me… A lot of clubs came. There was Liverpool at one point, Milan… But the team that insisted the most was West Ham at the time. West Ham made an offer, and Jean-Louis Triaud, who I really like, told me 'no, out of the question, you're not going anywhere. You're leaving Lormont, be happy that you're with us, calm down'. It's still a championship that attracts me, I think I have the profile… The offer is 5 million euros, and for a guy who comes out of nowhere, it was huge… Jean-Louis Triaud tells me to let it go, that I am happy here and that I don't need to go anywhere else. It was in 2013-2014. Marseille is also coming, and Jean-Triaud didn't even talk to me about it… Because there had been Souley, Alou Diarra… In the end, I had my balance, so not leaving didn't bother me anymore than that.”

Transcription Girondins4Ever