1987 ( Photo by Alain de Martignac / Onze / Icon Sport ) – Photo by Icon Sport
In Le Podcast des Légendes, the former central defender of the Girondins de Bordeaux, Alain Rochespoke about his second season as a pro, which was actually the one of confirmation. He was also French Champion, won the French Cup final, for a double (1987). He also played 28 matches, plus the European Cup matches.
“It’s confirmation. Now, I no longer have a substitute role, I’m a regular in that team. There was a very high-level recruitment, with the Vujovic brothers who arrived, Zlatan and Zoran. They were magnificent players. José Touré also arrived, Philippe Vercruysse, Jean-Marc Ferreri, Philippe Fargeon in January… A big team. Some players had stopped, like Bernard Lacombe I think. We did the double that year. It’s the reward. Doing a double is exceptional, it happens to very few players in their life. Especially since at the time the French championship was very homogeneous. There were very good teams, all the best players stayed in France, and you were only allowed three foreigners in each team.”
And there is also this European Cup match against Locomotiv Leipzig. He also played the return match. Bordeaux lost 1-0 in the first leg, then won 0-1 in the return, but lost on penalties in a memorable scene…
“I don’t remember the match too much, but I remember the penalty shootout more because Aimé Jacquet had pointed to Zlatko, who refused to shoot. Aimé Jacquet looked at me and told me that I was going to shoot. When Aimé asked you something, you said yes… Bernard Lacombe, before going to shoot, told me ‘you don’t ask yourself any questions, you hit hard in the middle’. Which I did, and I scored… But the team was eliminated. It was the semi-final of the Cup Winners’ Cup. At the end of the match, we took the bus to the airport, and in the waiting room before boarding, Claude Bez arrived by car looking like he was having a bad day. He went to see Zlatko, and in front of everyone he gave him a telling-off, saying that it was unacceptable for a foreign player to do that. At the time, you could only come to France from abroad if you were 28 years old. And so Claude Bez told him that it wasn’t normal for an 18-year-old kid to shoot in his place, because he refused. I was a little embarrassed, but I couldn’t do anything about it… And it’s not because he didn’t shoot that we didn’t win either, but there you go… For that, Claude Bez was incredible. He made people very responsible, and he couldn’t stand those who didn’t take their responsibilities. That was the case with Zlatko, and yet he had the qualities required to do it.”
Transcription Girondins4Ever
