Aimé Jacquet, the sad fate

Aimé Jacquet’s joy, on July 12, 1998, appeared contained, faithful to the image of the character. And quickly, in the wake of the celebrations which accompanied the title won by the French team against Brazil, it was an angry man who spoke. Cold anger directed against the media in general and L’Equipe in particular. The coronation of the Blues could not be enough to make us forget the suffering experienced months before the event.

Questioned about L’Equipe just a few minutes after the final whistle, the French coach did not grant his forgiveness. Quite the contrary. “I will not forgive, I will never forgive. I have nothing but contempt for these people, they are thugs! », he says to Philippe Houy, the TF1 interviewer, in front of 20 million viewers tuned to the front page. Jérôme Bureau, the boss of the sports daily, will not recover.

“Aimé Jacquet went through hell”

A quarter of a century later, Frédéric Mankowski, former physiotherapist for the France team, has forgotten nothing of this relentlessness. “From the inside, we found it so unfair that it gave us more strength and the desire to succeed. It was shameful. Aimé Jacquet went through hell. It was an unimaginable smear campaign about him,” he recalled in the columns of Courrier Picard, adding: “It made us even stronger. »

And the injustice is all the greater for this former member of the Blues staff as this first world champion star owes everything or almost everything to Aimé Jacquet. As evidenced by this anecdote delivered about the final against Brazil.

“The morning of the final, there was a tactical discussion. Aimé insisted on corners. He asked Zidane to be at the near post. We win 2-0 at halftime, two goals from Zizou’s header at the near post from a corner. Everything happened as he planned, he explained. It was crazy and in the last quarter of an hour, we were sure of winning. We took advantage of it, we spent the last 10 or 15 minutes on the bench understanding that we were winning the World Cup. »

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