50 years of the MHSC: Rolland Courbis in Montpellier, two adventures and a whole novel

En deux expériences au MHSC (avril 2007-2009 et décembre 2013-décembre 2015), Courbis a dirigé 187 rencontres et décroché l'accession à la Ligue 1 en 2009. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Unexpected savior, architect of the comeback, still a firefighter: “Coach Courbis” has traced a strange path at the MHSC. In his image.

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84 pages on glossy paper, dozens of unpublished photos, large-format portraits and interviews… In addition to the essential homage to To discover this Wednesday, December 11th on newsstands, our special edition has a few surprises in store for you: an interview with Michel Platini who talks about his friend Loulou, our Internet users' vote to choose the best players and coaches of all time, or the views of former Midi Libre writers and the drawings of Dadou, the essential Hérault cartoonist, crazy about MHSC.

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It was written. Between Rolland Courbis, a Marseille native with a legendary eloquence, and La Paillade, the club of an even more truculent Loulou Nicollin, the marriage would end up being sealed sooner or later. The wedding will have been celebrated twice between these two parties made to get along but also to separate. The story of a back-and-forth that was a bit of a foregone conclusion and a novel that fits Rolland like a glove, who left of his own accord, “tired”, on Christmas Eve 2015.

His rebound in Rennes, three weeks later, had then highlighted a divorce tinged with mutual wear and tear. At 71, “Coach Courbis” only remembers the good things in a club where he would have “loved to play. Working with guys like Loulou, Michel Mézy, I felt at home.”

“That's balls!”

A rough defender from the 1970s and 80s, already a rogue and ready to invent a Greek ancestor to join Olympiakos in 1973, Courbis has long been circling Montpellier. And its president who resembled him in a Pagnolesque game of mirrors. “We knew each other without knowing each other. But we had a mutual affection. He made me laugh, he smiles. And I saw that he liked me.” The union may have taken shape on August 22, 1998, during this return from the locker room at the Vélodrome, when Courbis, coach of an OM trailing 4-0, prophesied a crazy comeback to Nicollin and Mézy, the leaders opposite. “That's balls!” , Loulou replies, in his purest style. He could have done without the rest (5-4 at the final whistle). But the story had just sketched out a semblance of a first chapter.

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Read also: 50 years of MHSC: when Jacek Ziober entered the legend by becoming the first European goalscorer in the history of the club at La Mosson

“It's probably a coincidence”, believes the person concerned. Who prefers to refer to destiny to evoke his arrival, finally, at Montpellier, last in Ligue 2 in April 2007. On the evening of the 34th day and a defeat against Châteauroux (1-3), the consultant of the radio RMC meets Michel Mézy at La Mosson. A few hours later, the advisor to the president manages to make Loulou falter, who had dismissed Jean-François Domergue ten days earlier. In four matches, and despite an immediate defeat at Créteil (1-0), the magic works. And the National, with its collateral damage, is avoided.

Rescue(s), accession and pact

“The most important thing for me is to have seen Loulou happy as hell during this rescue. For him, firing club employees was a nightmare, says the technician. I think he had a stomach ulcer just thinking about it.” The fall swept away, remains the atypical springs of the Courbis method. Vitorino Hilton, his defender between 2013 and 2015, summed them up like this: “He was different from the others. Already in his way of training. He often stood aside to watch the sessions or… to phone. We sometimes heard him doing his shows on the radio. But he was an outstanding motivator,” the Brazilian recalled for L'Équipe.He gave us talks that always made us stronger than our opponents.”

The promotion to Ligue 1, validated on the wild night of May 29, 2009 and a Mosson packed with 30,000 spectators, also contains the touch of this inveterate player. For an apotheosis during the final day against Strasbourg (2-1). “The goalkeeper (Johann Carasso) who broke his knee, Jourdren who came on. Then two minutes from the end, Strasbourg had a chance. If he equalizes…”.

The jubilation won't change anything. Courbis and Montpellier part ways after this match. And before the 2012 L1 title, won by his successor, René Girard. “I'm leaving by building or helping to build 80% of the champion team three years later. But we'll never know, if I had stayed and hadn't had problems with the law, maybe we wouldn't have been champions.”

As if there was a page missing from this Paillade novel, the technician will end up coming back to it, in December 2013. “As soon as Loulou and I saw each other again, we started smiling”, Courbis breathes. Under his orders, M’Baye Niang crashed his car, but the coach avoided going off the road again and kept the MHSC, honoring the pact he claims to have made with the club’s founder: that the latter would never return to L2 in their lifetime. The second departure in 2015 and the quarrels had tarnished the idyll, but not the memories which, with Courbis, are never normal. “I’m used to being a bit original”, he summarizes. Like Montpellier, in short.

Also read: 50 years of the MHSC: Jean-Louis Gasset, the heir to a family history between passion and friendship

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