"A spark was missing" at Stade Rennais according to Romain Danzé

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Former Stade Rennais player Romain Danzé, here in the bays of Roazhon Park in July 2020. -

• Stade Rennais faces the Russians from Krasnodar on Tuesday for the first match in its history in the Champions League.

• Former defender and captain Romain Danzé, now responsible for public relations and club development, shares his vision of this progress.

• For him, “the spark” came from the title in the Coupe de France and the European campaign in Seville and Arsenal.

Without knowing it, he began his professional career at the dawn of an unforgettable season.

Both magnificent and traumatic.

At just 20 years old, Romain Danzé quickly tasted the bitterness of Rennes' disillusionment.

In this 2006-2007 season, his Stade Rennais lost Kim Kallström, Alexander Frei and Yoann Gourcuff and saw his historic qualification in the Champions League slip away.

Blame it on a goal from Lille Nicolas Fauvergue planted in stoppage time.

It took Romain Danzé and his club at heart to wait thirteen years to see their dearest dream come true and qualify for the Champions League.

This Tuesday, the red and black host the Russians from Krasnodar for what will forever remain a historic event for François Pinault's club.

To take the pulse of the meeting,

questioned its historic number 29, now responsible for public relations and the development of the club.

Is this home match against Krasnodar the one not to lose?

It's hard to qualify him like that for a first game.

What is certain is that we will play our luck in every game, even in Sevilla and Chelsea.

We have shown in the past that we are capable of great things.

You have to approach this competition by being uninhibited and playing as you know how to do.

We will collect as many points as possible.

The team is preparing for it.

Krasnodar, maybe not the dream poster for a historic first?

We are not going to be difficult.

It's still a

match at

home.

Maybe Krasnodar isn't the high-sounding name we might have had, but they shouldn't be underestimated.

If they have won the right, like us, to participate in this competition, it is because they deserve it.

You must beware.

There is a lot of eagerness to start, to discover this competition, to dive into it.

This music makes you dream.

We have fun listening to it, passing it on.

There we will hear it for real for an official match, in our stadium, for the first time.

Facebook reminds me of this video that I posted 4 years ago.

Premonitions @ Ladanze29 & @besnier_tvr 😍

🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Lp3hYBwhtc

- Nielsen (@Nielsen_L) October 15, 2020

You touched the dream as a player in 2007. You were the holder during the disillusionment.

Tell us…

In the locker room, everyone was shot.

There was not a word, no one dared to speak.

It's a big regret, a big scar.

It was like the sky that fell on our heads when Nicolas Fauvergue scored.

It could have allowed the club to grow even more at that time.

But we didn't do the right thing on the pitch.

It was the athlete who spoke.

It was played within seconds.

When it suddenly disappears, it's hard.

Did those images come back when you saw Sevilla qualify Rennes this summer?

Yes, because we measure the distance traveled.

These experienced failures have allowed us to achieve this today.

I won't be deprived of the idea that we learn from our failures.

To get there, the club learned from all its disappointments.

When Ocampos scored, I thought about that.

Like when we won the Coupe de France, I thought about the defeats in the past finals.

We have the impression that the progression is healthy, thoughtful ...

The first European campaign of Arsenal and Sevilla and the victory in the Coupe de France took a load off many people.

To the players but also to the whole club and all its components.

Since then, Stade Rennais has not stopped anything and continues to advance without complex.

There has been an evolution for three years even if we have always been a contender for Europe.

Something was missing, a spark, for the club to evolve concretely.

This is what happened in 2019. I will not know what exact moment the club changed.

I think the whole journey has contributed.

The public too, it has been extraordinary in recent years.

Has the look on the club changed?

It took a title for the club's image to change.

All the disappointments, we erased them with this Coupe de France.

People's vision has completely changed and the project that the club presents also attracts players.

Financial capacity, we know it is there.

The shareholder has always been present, even in a little more complicated times.

Julien Stéphan is no stranger to this change?

He has a very important part in this change.

It is he who manages the players, who manages them on a daily basis.

He is the one who built this group and these results.

We must not forget who came from the reserve team and that he knew the Nationale 2 and 3. I think he showed that he knew how to adapt very, very quickly.

It doesn't scare him.

You end your career just before the first Europa League campaign and the Coupe de France title.

It's frustrating ?

The frustration has passed.

I quit almost a year and a half ago because my body told me to quit.

I couldn't go on anymore.

I moved on.

I am fortunate enough to work for this wonderful club and to continue to contribute to its growth.

I am very proud of the evolution of the club.

We're doing our best to keep it going.

We know that consistency is what is most important in the world of sport.

When you joined the pro workforce in 2006, were we

already

talking

about Europe?

Yes, we were talking about it because last year, the club had played it.

These are the matches against Osasuna in the UEFA Cup.

These are great dates that many people remember.

The club is at the top of the Ligue 1 table and wants to requalify there.

The Champions League was still just a dream.

If you had to keep an image of the Champions League?

I would say Zidane's volley in the final against Leverkusen.

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