FC Nantes | History and Heritage tells …
On December 15, 1968, the Canaries welcome AS Monaco to the Marcel Saupin stadium.
In this year 1968, competition of France. French football is no exception for (among other things) a story of advertising on the jersey or not …: the first sponsors arrive, French television refuses “the sandwich man”.
Nantes / RC Paris-Sedan match, Henri Michel pursues Roger Lemerre
At the end of the year, the Nantes Football club is in the soft underbelly of the standings; AS Monaco are last in the standings, with only one victory since the start of the 1968/1969 championship.
At the end of the year, two Canaries are building their nests. They will take advantage of the future winter break to get married: Michel Pech in Narbonne and Henri Michel in Aix en Provence.
As Pierre Lautrey (journalist and founding member of the FCN) writes: “… these two, did they want to mark this happy period with a victory? Still, they were among the main architects of Nantes’ success against Monaco (2-0)”. Let’s add a double from Philippe Gondet, silent for some time, and this is enough for the happiness of the people of Nantes.
And yet, Henri Michel cries hot tears, at the end of the match, in the locker room.
His captain and great celibate friend (as a bonus, future marriage witness), Robert Budzynski left a few hours earlier on a stretcher after a shock with the Monegasque François Simian. Result: double fracture of the right leg, towards the St Damien clinic in Nantes, crying of the teammates, including the Monegasque François Simian traumatized by the sound of the shock …
This serious injury to Bud unleashes the Nantes players, especially after the break, leaving no respite to the defense of Monaco. But the spirits are elsewhere. All the players, the Club staff know the seriousness of the injury of the Nantes international captain. It will surely take a long time to repair. Indeed, Bud does not fully recover from this accident.
For the History, and without knowing it immediately, it is the beginning of the end of the career of the “sheriff”, after a subsequent recurrence, in training.
But it is also the beginning of another great career, within the Yellow and Green, in a post offered to Robert Budzynski by President Louis Fonteneau: that of “Sports Director”.
Guelzo Zaetta and Robert Budzynski
Robert Budzynski is a precursor to this position (despite a short period of Antoine Raab before in the early 60’s). He was a pioneer in French football from the 1970s, to bring all his technical and tactical knowledge to the various coaches he worked with at FC Nantes.
Arrived in Nantes in 1963, double champion of France in 1965 and 1966 with the Yellow, he gave 35 years of his life as sports director of the Football Club of Nantes, from 1970 to 2005.
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