“I owe everything, and now even more, to Stade Malherbe”

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The exit from the D’Ornano tunnel, this Friday, November 22, 2024 on the occasion of the Rodez reception, will not just be a metaphor for Jean-Marc Branger. “It’s going to be very hard emotionally,” anticipates, with a smile, the head of the performance unit at Stade Malherbe Caen.

A scar never closed

As he emerges onto the lawn, the last moments experienced on the sidelines of this stadium, SMC tracksuit on his back, will come back to his face on May 15, 2021. The ecstatic joy afterwards Benjamin Jeannot’s penalty which offered the Malherbistes an almost unexpected hold, against Clermont (2-1), combined with the pain of knowing its fate was sealed. End of contract, end ofa 17 year adventure initiated in 2005 when Franck Dumas, on the advice of a certain Frédéric Petereyns, brought in the Gueugnon goalkeeper to take care of physical preparation of the team.

Even though we know that it’s part of the job, we’re never ready to no longer have a job.

Leaving the club was a “tear” whose “scar has never healed”. Of course, Jean-Marc Branger followed Patrice Garande to Dijon during the 2021/22 season. The duo had a few touches to take over clubs but none came to fruition. “Overnight, you go from working 70 hours a week to nothing. You get up in the morning, you wonder how you are going to spend your day. It’s complicated. And in football, you are quickly forgotten ».

At Pôle emploi, outside the football bubble

Of course, Jean-Marc Branger was able to remain in the circuit thanks to the outstretched hand by Laurent Guyot, Annecy coach. “I came from there, I returned to live there. But my wife remained working in Caen, it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t far from depression “. Especially since, at home, everything reminds him of Stade Malherbe. The posters from the 17 seasons spent in Blue and Red, the jerseys collected over nearly two decades…

Alone in Savoie, the physical trainer divides his time between the FCA grounds, where he lends a helping hand, on a voluntary basis, to the Guyot staff, his few hobbies and meetings with his advisor at Pôle emploi.

The hardest part was when they told me about finding a food job. We had to start thinking about doing something other than football. But I don’t know how to do anything else…

By pointing unemployed at 57s, the man who “did so much racing” Nicolas Seube understands that it is “difficult to find work after a certain age”. But he also discovers much more dramatic situations than his own. The social reality of the country is faced squarely in the face, to the point of sometimes having tears in your eyes.

I met people who had given 30 years of their lives to their company and who found themselves unemployed, says the man who was able to count on those around him to keep going. Some have attempted suicide and spent time in psychiatry.

“In football, we don’t realize that we live in a bubble, outside of society,” he continues. Now I can understand what the guys at Michelin or Valeo are going through.”

“Paintings still bore my writing”

Enough to put things into perspective and appreciate even more the phone call received a few weeks ago. At the other end of the line, Gérard Prêcheurthe new technical director of SM Caen, explains to him the project of the new management of the club. “It was exactly what we were doing at the time.” In 24 hours, he packed his bags again, heading to Normandy. And finds his friends, “Nico (Seube), Manu (Lepresle), Fred (Petereyns)”, and even, in an office in the locker room, “Veleda paintings which still bore my writing! It’s a real miracle, I never thought I would come back. »

Friday, when leaving the D’Ornano tunnel, Jean-Marc Branger will close a three-year break and pick up the thread of his story. Of his life. “Those were great years with Jean-François Fortin. I owe everything, and now even more, to Stade Malherbe.”

League 2, 14th day SM Caen – Rodez, Friday November 22 (8 p.m.), D’Ornano stadium.

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