This post-career challenge has been on his mind for a while. Even though he often thought about it, it was yet another injury – this time to the Achilles heel – which brought his playing career to a premature end a little earlier than he had planned, in April 2021.
Unlike Mathieu Bastareaud who became manager of RC Toulon – in whom he confided in the BastaShow to see exclusively and free on RugbyPassTV – Huget did not bounce back into rugby.
“When you really leave rugby, you have a social break where you are nowhere. You are no longer in the sporting world and you are no longer in active life because it has been 20 years since you left it. You’re in the middle and you wonder where you’re going,” he explains.
In 2021, he therefore decided to return to his studies and complete a Master’s degree in General Management at CDES in Limoges.
“I wanted to see the other side if I returned to the sporting world. Ugo Mola did that too, he recommended it to me. You see all the stages of management. I find it very enriching in terms of learning. It opens you up to other sports because you spend time with footballers, handball players, cyclists… you learn, you give, you feed off all the other sports and you stay in touch. »
A book in preparation
From this experience, Yoann Huget (37 years old, 62 selections between 2010 and 2019), decided to release a book. “Of course I’m going to talk about my history, my childhood, but I needed to transcribe it, to prepare the players too,” he explains in the BastaShow.
One aspect not to be underestimated is the psychological aspect faced with this ax which suddenly falls. “What’s hard is when on June 30 everything is taken away from you: club emails, WhatsApp groups.
“When that’s taken away from you and your diary is completely empty in September, that’s hot. I had to manage it myself and no one managed it for me. Before you delegated. There you recentralize everything towards you, you try to manage. Being back at school has done me a lot of good. »
It’s not easy to manage from one day to the next when your daily life has been organized for twenty years, whether within a club or the federation. However, in this career whirlwind, it’s not easy to anticipate what’s next.
“The man you are at 25 is not the same at 35,” he says. “When you stop, you can choose a club because they will give you the opportunity to coach the last year. I am thinking of Morgan Parra who spent two years at Stade Français and who became a coach.
“Getting ready means everything and nothing. The main thing is to know what you want at 35, to do everything possible so that as soon as you get there, and in the end you have a choice. »
