50 years of MHSC: Bernard Gasset, co-founder of the club, like a soul brother for Louis Nicollin

Le triomphe silencieux de Bernard Gasset (à gauche) dans la Mosson des tout débuts, aux côtés de Louis Nicollin et Georges Frêche. Midi Libre – DOMINIQUE QUET

Co-founder of La Paillade with Louis Nicollin, a character who was both discreet and touchy, Bernard Gasset had become like a brother to Loulou. A connoisseur of local football who knew how to use his networks to help the club rise.

A Midi Libre special issue of 84 pages

Condensing half a century of history into 84 pages. This is the challenge taken up by the sports editorial team of Midi Libre in this special edition on the 50th anniversary of the MHSC. Available on newsstands on December 11 for just 5 euros, this glossy magazine will allow you to relive the great moments in the history of the Montpellier club through our “50” who made the MHSC. Builders, of course, starting with this “Nicollin Saga”, told by Laurent and Colette, the wife of the late Loulou, but also Georges Frêche, the mayor who became a friend. A special edition full of anecdotes and unpublished photos with an exclusive interview with Olivier Giroud.

A slow gait that no one dared hurry, a cavernous voice that had been beaten up, an impassive blue gaze, Bernard Gasset had a face that was dissipated under the swirls of an unfiltered gypsy. This thick cloud of smoke enveloped the mystery of this man made of silence and outbursts that cut like the thread of truth.

Wrapped in his character, Bernard Gasset did not seek to please anyone, did not bend to anything. He was as he was, he did what he wanted with his marginal life and did not give a damn about all social conventions because he was Loulou's untouchable friend. The slightly rascally man from La Paillade, a weapon of dissuasion for Louis Nicollin and other personalities of the city.

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A friendship set with Audiard-style lines

In the manner of those who keep their word, this man, close to the gypsy milieu, played on the fascination he inspired, like a modern cowboy, and reserved his entire hidden side for his friends and especially Loulou. Bernard Gasset spent his life playing on himself with others. He also spent his life playing everything. A bowling player on the Arceaux pitch, a poker player, until the end of the night with his air of the “Kid from Cincinnati”, a player of all cards and a football player.

Bernard Gasset (left) and Louis Nicollin with Claude Cougnenc, Director General of Services at Montpellier City Hall. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

“With the president, they were unbeatable. They did everything that was allowed and especially not allowed”says Jean-Louis Gasset, who sometimes teamed up with Georges Frêche on Sundays at the Nicollin's, on the heights of Castelnau. “For me, Bernard is the brother that Louis never had. A relationship like theirs is very rare in a lifetime,” says Laurent Nicollin in the biography of Jean-Marie Lanoë. The friendship of two men, who love life, burn it at all ends. A friendship set with Michel Audiard-style retorts, where authority disguises itself under the jousts of laughter.

“His meeting with Louis Nicollin put him back on the right path”

“My mother says that my father's luck was to meet Louis Nicollin, because this meeting put him back on the right path” explains Jean-Louis Gasset, his only son with a football life. In this world, where money flows freely, “Bernard” made sure not to depend on Loulou. And he offered himself both respect and freedom of speech from the boss of the company and the club. A word without filter.

Read also:50 years of the MHSC: Louis Nicollin, the incredible saga of a pack leader who became a triumphant patriarch

In 1974, Bernard Gasset, then head of the corporate team, and Louis Nicollin founded the Paillade club. “Bernard knew the game, Loulou knew men. He thought one thing, Loulou validated it or not”, explains Yves Prouget, son of the former co-president.

“Bernard knew the ball, he had an eye for it”

He initiated the recruitment of Di Nallo, Michel Mézy, then in Nîmes, and for example accompanied Louis Nicollin to AS Saint-Martin to convince Jean-Marc Valadier to make the big leap to the other side of the Paillade bridge. “Bernard knew the ball, he had the eye. I was the head and he was the legs”, laughed Louis Nicollin.

The Montpellier family, and its struggles for influence, lead to perpetual tension over who will be closest to the “good Lord”. Loulou, master of all, plays on it. “Bernard was closest to Loulou, in whom he had absolute confidence”, whispers an observer.

Read also: 50 years of the MHSC: Georges Frêche, first patron and essential builder who became Loulou's friend

Without an official function, without a title, Bernard Gasset was the president's advisor until his son Jean-Louis was sidelined, ousted in November 1999 and replaced by Michel Mézy. A fratricidal fracture between the two men. Bernard leaves Loulou a little more alone one evening of celebration at Mas Saint-Gabriel on April 13, 2002. The evening of a 0-0 at Gerland, between Lyon and Montpellier. Fifteen years later, Louis Nicollin will also succumb to a heart attack. From a heart exhausted from having given too much.

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