Batteux, l'Homme du Match

"Batteux, l'homme du match" is the account of a remarkable human and sporting adventure, that of a man, Albert Batteux, first a professional footballer, then a trainer because of his love of the game, a game played by gentlemen. Albert Batteux is now recognized as a great soccer "conductor". He trained Le Grand Reims in the days of Kopa, Fontaine and Co, then the French national team for the World Cup in Sweden in '58, a team that was as renowned as the French team of '98. And, from 1968-1972, he was behind the first golden age of "Les Verts", the famous Saint-Etienne club. Twenty-five years of sporting triumphs, along with his share of failures and misunderstandings. "Batteux, l'homme du match" paints the portrait of an atypical character in a fairly conventional world. A man of commitment on and off the pitch, Albert Batteux wrote – articles and diaries – and filmed – well before the invention of the camcorder – in order to uphold the torch of this universal game, football, the planet's most popular sport. In exploring these previously unseen archives and in comparing them with the accounts of former players trained by him – Aimé Jacquet, Raymond Kopa, Just Fontaine and Dominique Colonna – "Batteux, l'homme du match" attempts to get behind the mystery of the profession of football coach. Despite the pleasure of the game, the job is as difficult, lonely and often as criticized as that of the orchestra conductor who also has to bring together brilliant soloists and get them to play together