The Stade Brest coach launched Blaise Matuidi when he led Troyes in 2004. Since then, the two men have forged a strong relationship.

The encounter

I discovered Blaise shortly after my arrival in Troyes in 2004. The Ligue 2 season had already started a month ago when the director of the training center came to see me and said, "There is a 17-year-old guy out of the INF

Clairefontaine and who has been training with me for a month and a half. He does not have much to do with us. He must go to the pros. I then took him into my training group, and he never got out of it.

I got to know a humble and kind boy, who lived alone at the Estac training center. It was not easy for him because his family did not live with him. For a young midfielder, Blaise was already intellectually and tactically mature, had a very good listening quality. He melted into the group with humility and ease. He was immediately taken with affection by the executives such as Carl Tourenne, Benjamin Nivet or Frederic Adam, who were nevertheless demanding with the young players.

First steps

I started to play Blaise from November 2004. Although his qualities were obvious, I wanted to integrate it sparingly, I did not want to grill it. We went up in Ligue 1 that season and during the summer camp of 2005, he showed me he could hold.

He immediately did the trick. Despite his shallow physique, with his arms-like thighs, he was impressive in his ability to harass the opponent, to read and impact the game, to project and to endure. He already had all the great player he is today.

The first goal

It's a very nice anecdote. During a match against Lille in January 2006, he scored and to celebrate his goal, he crossed the field to come and jump in my arms. I did not expect this gesture at all. When you're a young player and you do that, you're likely to be chambered by the entire locker room for a week.

That's obviously what happened. The executives lined him up and said, "Blaise, you jumped on your daddy's neck! I learned later that he called me "dad". It touched me. He told me that he considered me his second father. And I, today, have another son in addition to my two children.

The flight

He then left for Saint-Etienne, where he continued to shine. When he signed at Paris Saint-Germain, in 2011, at the beginning of the Qatari era, many people told me that he would not impose himself among the stars. I told them that not only would he win, but in addition, Carlo Ancelotti would write his name first on the score sheet, before putting the ten others around him. He made himself indispensable, as is the case everywhere he went, including today at Juventus Turin.

A chance

For a coach like me, it's a chance to have a player of such caliber in my squad. It only happens two or three times in a career. I also had Djibril Sidibé, in Troyes.I am proud to have been able to coach two world champions. And I was moved to see Blaise lift the trophy last summer, we sent messages. I hope he will have the opportunity to tell me all this the next time we meet again. "