After securing the club’s first trophy in 48 years and leading them into the Champions League, Stéphan has resigned
By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French
Football News
The
Champions League theme blared into the night. There was little to celebrate in 2020 but, due to the controversial early halt to the Ligue 1 season, Rennes’ Roazhon Park exploded with the joy of that familiar orchestral swell. Third place in Ligue 1 and some helpful Europa League results meant they were guaranteed top level European football for the first time. What president Nicolas Holveck described as “a very beautiful evening” was down to manager Julien Stéphan. Few coaches have been as impressive as Stéphan in recent times, but his era is now at an end.
“I leave Rennes with a heavy heart but with the feeling to have always given the best of myself for the good of the club,” Stéphan explained following his resignation on Monday. “This decision, difficult to take, was deeply thought through. I feel that I have done everything that I could.” After nine years at the club, moving up the ladder from academy director to head coach, Stéphan’s disappointment was shared by those above him, who had implored him to stay.