This bronze work will be co-financed by AS Saint-Etienne, the City of Saint-Etienne and the Loire department and will be produced by the Parisian sculptor Laurent Mallamaci.

The statue will bring together two legends of ASSE, a club which will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2023.

Roger Rocher was president from 1961 to 1982, a period during which the club won nine of its ten French championship titles and six French cups, and during which the Greens achieved their European Cup epics between 1974 and 1976.

Robert Herbin, who arrived at the club in the summer of 1957, has one of the finest records in French football.

First a player, Rocher then appointed him head of the team in 1972 to succeed Albert Batteux.

He won ten league titles, six as a player and four as a coach, and six French cups, three as a player and three others as a coach.

The AS Saint-Etienne life and training center in Etrat (Loire) already bears the name of Robert Herbin with, in particular, at the entrance, a fresco representing the former technician who died on April 27, 2020 in the age of 81.

The Saint-Etienne club will not be a precursor in this area.

A statue of Raymond Kopa has been erected in front of the Auguste-Delaune stadium in Reims since 2018, one of Jean Prouff was inaugurated in 2021 in the Rhoazon Park in Rennes and one of Henri Michel at the entrance to the Beaujoire stadium in Nantes , the same year.

© 2022 AFP