Ligue 1 Review | Brest remember King Eric on night of tributes | OneFootball

There wasn’t a dry eye in the stands at the Stade Francis-Le Blé before kickoff on Sunday evening as Stade Brestois and Paris Saint-Germain came together to pay tribute to the memory of the late Éric Roy. 

The Brest coach passed away in June at the age of 58 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. King Eric, as he had come to be known during his three years in charge of Les Pirates, left an indelible mark on the club and city as a whole. 

His daughter spoke to the stadium before the match: “We wanted to thank the team, the Brest University Hospital for supporting Dad during his illness, thank the fans – thank you for your words, thank you for your songs, for your messages. There was so much love here. It’s absolutely incredible. 

“We are so happy that he was able to experience this before he passed away. Football is about love, passion, and connection. That’s what he passed on to you, and he will continue to spread it from where he is, through you, through us. Thank you, long live Brest!” She said. 

Connection at the heart of Brest

Connection felt like the word to pick up on in a beautiful statement, because it has been the theme underpinning Brest since Roy’s tragic death. From the internal appointment of Julien Lachuer as the head coach, an assistant under Roy, there’s a feeling of legacy to this team. 

There’s the sense that Brest are building on and honouring the foundations left by their former King rather than uprooting and starting anew. And this continuity has contributed to a promising start to the campaign, where Les Pirates could be a little disappointed to have only taken five points from four games. 

As Luis Enrique said after watching his PSG side come away with a narrow 1-0 win courtesy of Ferran Torres’ fifth-minute strike, “It’s incredible that we won this game when it was the worst of the four we’ve played.” According to Opta, Brest should be top of the Ligue 1 table on expected points. 

A fitting tribute left for Éric Roy

It was a performance against PSG to make their former head coach proud. As the Brest midfielder Hugo Magnetti explained in the mixed zone after the game, “That was our goal, and coach Lachuer made that clear in his pre-match speech. He really emphasised the point; his words resonated deeply with everyone.” 

Magnetti continued, “We truly wanted to pay tribute to this great man, to give everything for him. He would have been proud of us, but he would have also given us a bit of a talking-to because we missed some big chances.” 

For a club in mourning, there might have been a fear at the start of the season that the football would have come back too soon; the emotion would be too raw. Instead, that rawness has brought the club together, uniting each aspect more deeply. And on a night of tributes, it was on the pitch that a fitting one was left for King Roy. 

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GFFN | Nick Hartland