Guingamp (France) (AFP)

In the shadow of the official championship of the Ligue 1 football championship hides one of the best lawns that aims to reward gardeners laden precious grass, a specialty as rare as popular clubs.

"Next year we will beat the PSG!" Says Sylvain Pruvost, gardener of the Unicorn stadium or evolves Amiens SC, third place on the podium of the best L1 lawns last season. The former gardener of the Arras golf course is looking to dethrone the famous gardener PSG Jonathan Calderwood, crowned three times in four years king of the pitch by the Professional Football League (LFP).

The LFP created this championship in 2013 and since then, some gardeners, fans and coaches have been watching this classification closely. The goal of this competition is clear: "the improvement of the quality of lawns in Ligue 1", assures Raymond Chapelon, president of the Commission surfaces of game of the LFP.

"The field is the first thing we look at," said Manu Bessong, gardener at En Avant Guingamp, winner of the lawn championship for the 2017/2018 season. The club came second in the league last season, just behind PSG ... "It's not my fault that the club came down in Ligue 2," he says.

Former professional footballer, he is an employee of the company Sparfel, one of the leaders in the market of the maintenance of green sporting spaces, and has been pampering for five years the hybrid field of the "smallest of the big clubs".

Revenue in 2013 in Ligue 1, the EAG invests 1.3 million euros in 2015 to equip its main stadium with a hybrid lawn, a mixture of natural grass and synthetic fiber. Since then, every day, Manu Bessong runs up and down the 105 meters by 68 that makes the stadium Roudourou to check the status, or "more than 20 km per day!".

In addition to mowing the height and flexibility discussed with the players, and tracing the white lines that fade between games, the gardener has become an expert in fungal diseases of the turf.

- Lawn surgeon -

An obsession now. On match days he sprinkles the players' entrance hall with disinfectant to prevent any contamination of the pitch. Then before the kickoff, he makes a final turn with his rake, and starts the automatic jets for "the ball slips".

After the match, he returns to the field to pick up the "chiquettes" and start treating the turf injured by the players' crampons.

In this industry, which currently weighs several million euros, Manu Bessong's employer, Sparfel, has more than 30 gardeners on the Ligue 1 fields, including those of Saint-Étienne and the training center. Clairefontaine.

Its creator, Jean-Claude Sparfel, specialized in grass since the 70's, "when the football fields were in a bad state". He will file patents including the "photosynthesizer", a small revolution in lawn care. "Day and night" this huge rolling machine "can recreate the photosynthesis" necessary for the growth of green gold, says the septuagenarian.

Faced with more and more specific skills needed to maintain the precious lawns, many clubs have opted for subcontractors like Sparfel but also ID Verde and Sportingsols.

"Gardeners specialized, it does not run the streets and we can not put a novice on a lawn of L1", confirms Armel Bever, director of the agency ID Verde who maintains the lawn of Amiens. "In France, there is a golf greenkeeper training, but not for other sports fields," he laments.

If the creation of a specialized sector is not on the agenda, according to the LFP, the signing in 2018 of an agreement with the French golf federation has already made it possible to offer adapted training to the gardeners of Ligue 1.

A first step may be towards more specialized training for these new lawn surgeons.

© 2019 AFP