Stade Brestois. « Il y avait Claude Bez à Bordeaux, Bernard Tapie à Marseille et François Yvinec à Brest » – Stade Brestois
He was the foot in Brest. That of crazy ambitions and excess. The central character of incredible stories and international stars of a club that touched the stars before sinking into the abyss. The face of a timeless 80s decade. “His desire was to make Brest Armorique the flagship team in Brittany and to establish itself as a stronghold in French football,” recalls Yvon Pouliquen, player between 1982 and 1987. At the time, there was Claude Bez in Bordeaux and Bernard Tapie in Marseille. François Yvinec fell into that category ”. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the liquidation of Brest Armorique, in December 1991, François Yvinec went peacefully on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in his Spanish house.
“The players offered for him”
For two weeks, “François had been tired but he had kept all his intelligence, all his head”, testifies with emotion his wife, Maïté. In Calpe, a small coastal town 120 km south of Valencia where he took up residence with his wife in 2001, François Yvinec was a “happy man”. A calm and light life, where the octogenarian could express his passion for painting. A life far away, very far from the rhinestones and sequins that have made its legend at the tip of Finistère. An era made up of exploits, dreams, despair, follies and psychodramas. “We saw his determination to want to raise the club in the upper echelons of the D1 at the time, remember with nostalgia the former Brest defender Patrick Colleter. He wants to be 200% for his club and the region. And we were with him. At the start, the players came above all for him. He had this strength, this desire, this character ”.
When it took office on June 23, 1981, Stade Brestois was already in D1. Before staying there for nine seasons during the 1980s. “He brought Brest to a whole new dimension, with players who marked their time: Ginola, Julio César, Cabañas …”, supports Yvon Kermarec, the former president Stade Brestois, very close to Yvinec and who will be present in Spain on Saturday during his funeral. “He was a colorful character, passionate about football, in love with Brest and its club,” says Paul Le Guen. He was very close to the players, he even liked it almost too much. He liked to buy but he had trouble selling (laughs) ”.
His Yule log, his blows and jail
Born to baker parents in Berven on December 24, 1932, “hearing the sound of the clogs of people going to mass”, tells his nephew Hubert Le Bihan, the life of François Yvinec was a novel. Former amateur footballer in Berven, Landivisiau, the Saint-Pierre Legion and the Stade Lesnevien, Yvinec had created his industrial pastry business at the end of the 1950s in Saint-Divy, known “for its famous Christmas log”. But it is as president of Brest Armorique that the myth is built. It would take a thick book to tell it all.
Among his brilliance, the signing in the summer of 1986 of the stars of the World Cup in Mexico disputed a few weeks earlier: the Brazilian defender Julio César and the Argentinian José-Luis Brown, world champion and scorer in the final . Or even his absurd trips to Colombia to go and find himself “his star” Roberto Cabañas in 1987. But François Yvinec is also his quarrel with his coach Raymond Kéruzoré during the 86-87 season, who trained with the latter. the departure of the Leclercs.
The demotion to D2, then the judicial liquidation of Brest Armorique, will mark the end of Yvinec’s reign at the head of the Brest club in 1991. Between January and February 92, the now ex-president of Brest even spent 51 days in prison at the ‘Hermitage. This painful episode had led him to cut ties with Brest. “I know that everything that happened at the end of Brest Armorique, made him feel badly in the heart, but he did not show it, confides his wife, Maïté Yvinec. He keeps everything to himself ”. Over the past twenty years, his visits have been rare in Finistère. During his last visit, discreetly in December 2019, François Yvinec confided to the Telegram that he “saw only nice people at Le Blé.” Some had things in mind. They said to me: remember François … ». Remember a certain idea of football in Brest.