It's a surprising and painful start for RC Lens.

A man in the shadows for laymen but the main craftsman of the return of Sang et Or to the fore, Florent Ghisolfi leaves the artesian club to join OGC Nice from Ineos.

"It's an end that is a bit sudden and suffered by the club ... My first reaction was to understand, to try to influence Florent", explained Lensois general manager Arnaud Pouille during a press conference organized Tuesday and during which the name of the Riviera club was never pronounced.

"I won't dwell on the reasons.

The reasons for a choice are always personal and belong to me.

As for the timing, it may be surprising since we are in the middle of the season.

But I am not a coach, I am not a player, and in our profession, the least bad timing to leave a club and join another is September, ”commented Florent Ghisolfi.

“I presented to Arnaud, three and a half years ago, a project, a three-year cycle.

On this cycle, all the boxes were checked, perhaps even more than expected.

I leave with the feeling of accomplishment, totally, he continued.

For the anecdote, I said over an aperitif, when we were still in Ligue 2, that the day we would finish in front of Losc I could leave in peace.

I should have set myself a higher goal!

(laughs)”.


- He must surely be thinking about his ex


- Ghisolfi why is he leaving it's not fucking possible, how are we going to do without him pic.twitter.com/ImTSPosXBD

— Matteo (@matx62) October 3, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.


Ghisolfi, architect of the Lensois revival

The 37-year-old former Bastia and Reims player was appointed in May 2019, when the RCL was still in Ligue 2. In three seasons, he had great success with the rise in Ligue 1 obtained in the spring. 2020, then two beautiful seventh places in the championship.

He is also, with the head of the Eet recruitment unit, a former Valenciennes footballer, Grégory Thil (who will follow him to the south of France), at the origin of the intelligent recruitment policy carried out by the Sang et Or these last years.

This announcement, which logically created incomprehension and anger among Lensois supporters, at a time when the club seemed in perfect osmosis, comes just a few days before the long-awaited North derby, Sunday (8:45 p.m.) on the lawn of Lille , the great rival.

“It's not good news, it's a blow in the life of our project (…) but RC Lens is not going to collapse tomorrow!

All the work we have done will stay, ”said Pouille.

Before this press conference, nearly 4,000 Lensois supporters had attended training open to the public at the Bollaert-Delelis stadium and launched hostilities for Sunday's match with a banner reading "To do 4 out of 4, break their legs “, in reference to the three derbies won by the RCL against Losc last season.

Justice

Match Nice-Cologne: Searches carried out in Germany after the incidents

Sport

Lens-OL: Bosz does not feel "not threatened", Aulas claims to want to "take stock" after Lyon-Toulouse

  • Sport

  • Soccer

  • League 1

  • RC Lens

  • OGC Nice