In absolutely any field, success is often born from the chemistry of the duo: Laurel and Hardy in humor, the Boileau-Narcejac in literature or the Brian twins in tennis. Luis Campos and Christoph Galtier could be their football counterpart. Between the conservative Portuguese (57) and Christophe Galtier, Marseille and the (very) optimistic former defender two years his junior, the complicity was not apparent when the latter landed on the night of the end of 2017, in place of Marcelo Bielsa. Today, the first is not considered Paris Saint-Germain, since it was officially appointed “Football Adviser” on June 10, without the second on the bench.
“There is mutual trust and good complementarity between them,” confirms Alain Perrin, who knows Gallier well because he was his assistant during his wanderings between 2004 and 2009 (Al Ain [Emirats Arabes Unis]Portsmouth, Sochaux, Lyon, Saint-Etienne). “Christophe may have desires in terms of recruitment, in personal files, but for him, it is not his job to look for players, limit potential, conduct economic negotiations on transfers. It was all that part that Campos brought to Lille, and Christophe really appreciated his work. . »
Ten million euros in compensation for Nice?
The two men may have met in Nice, where Galtier could have seen his friend replace Julien Fournier, the Eagles’ football director with whom the break was completed. Finally, it is the former coach of Saint-Etienne and Lusk who will leave the OGCN first and, if not lucky, will join Campos in Paris, following the mirage of Zidane.
according to the teamPSG will buy back the last two years of the technician’s contract for nearly €10 million, while signing a nice check for Mauricio Pochettino and his staff to bid them farewell.
The Portuguese, who also passed through Monaco, among others, and the Provencal will renew a story thread that was interrupted but not broken by the departure without first notice from Lusk, in August 2020, due to the mismatch of mood with the general manager. At the time, Mark Ingla. An absence that saddened Galtier so much, even if, with the team that Campos built, he would end the champion’s night after a few months.
” [Son absence] Adds a workload that I don’t need on a daily basis, the technician lamented in November 2020 in the team. Lewis is the one who has been in constant contact with the players and their entourage, because he was the one who went to get them. When it was necessary to solve a problem with a player, there was Louis. In strategy, in long-term repercussions, in team building, there was…”
Since then, the two men have reconnected and exchanged regularly. Their future collaboration in the capital will depend on the same springs as in the north: Campos engineer to build the team, deliver target job profiles and ensure back office work; Prose Galtier to assemble parts and operate the machine in the field, without getting bogged down in carpet dealers’ discussions, especially during transportation.
Often synonymous with the “Achilles heel of the clubs”
The recipe seems clear, the boundaries between the functions are quite fixed. It is on this good relationship that the club’s success can lie, as Guy Lacombe points out, even if Campos is not a classic sporting director, since he is not even an employee. “It is essential that there is an osmosis between the coach and the sporting director, as the former Parisian coach stresses, from 2005 to 2007. It is often the Achilles heel of clubs, especially in Paris Saint-Germain in recent years, and it is difficult to move in the right direction in these cases. Work in tandem, or else there will be a lack of consistency in sporting choices, and with a domino effect, on the field.”
Lacombe turns a binary into a triple:
There are three people who should go hand in hand as much as possible: the president, the athletic director and the coach. But in Paris, the leaders made decisions, players, that were not in accordance with the will of the coaches. We put it all on the back of the last Parisian coaches, but, excuse me, that makes me laugh sweetly. I think we’ve had some great people on the bench at PSG in recent years, Emery, Tuchel, he’s been a very high level, they proved that right after leaving the club. »
Now retired from the field, 67-year-old Averoni, a resident of Brittany, thus remembers his good relations with President Pierre Playau and “DS” Jean-Michel Mutter from the time of Canal+, before the US Colony Capital Fund, does not break that harmony. Since then, Paris has changed ownership and size again. Christophe Galtier is set to become the second French coach in the demanding era of QSI after Laurent Blanc (2013-2016).
Campos will have to wet the shirt a little more.
He would begin to silence evil spirits who noticed that Marseille had never had to manage such an audience of stars. Alan Perrin doesn’t worry about this, as he recalls that his deputy at the time was stuck in the 2000s with a dressing room rich with foreigners of all nationalities, and the arrogance that goes with it.
If he overlooks the qualities of his former player 2, “who always got results a little higher than one would expect”, and Luis Campos’ “network and overall vision”, he nonetheless suggests cause for concern. “Campos will have to wet the shirt a little more, Judge Perrin. In his way of doing at Lille, I found that once the team was built, he fell back a lot. He is a service provider to build a workforce. But the club needs a sporting director who has a vision, which he has, but who stands Behind it also provides a link between the players and the coach, the leaders, and the press. I call it after-sales service, so that it’s not just the coach who finds himself at the front. Leonardo had a role, liked it or not, but he did the job.”
And Antero Henrique in all of this?
According to a club press release, the Portuguese, the luxury car entrepreneur, finds himself “responsible for the organisation, recruitment and performance” of PSG. But it still operates with its own exoskeleton, its own recruiters, which also put it at the service of Celta Vigo, who finished 11th in the last Spanish league.
So Galtaire can’t always be able to count on his partner when a gust of wind rocks the Parisian boat. The question will then be posed about the role of another Portuguese leader, former sporting director Antero Henrique (2017-2019), who is back to help at the Parisian club, but whose job profiles are struggling to define.
