PROFILE | Red Star’s Damien Durand – from youth activity leader at 25 to Ligue 2 top-scorer at 30 | OneFootball

“When your passion finally becomes your job, it’s an incredible feeling,” Damien Durand says in a recent interview. “At the age of 25, working as a youth activity leader, you tell yourself your chances are very limited.”

At 30 years-old, Durand is not meant to be here. At least, not according to the usual pathways. There was no academy conveyor belt, no early professional contract, no carefully managed ascent. Instead, there were years spent in the amateur divisions, balancing football with work as a youth activity leader in Morangis, playing for pleasure as much as ambition.

And yet, midway through this season, Durand finds himself co-leading the Ligue 2 scoring charts and spearheading Red Star FC’s push at the top end of the table.

The Frenchman signed his first professional contract at 26, an age when many forwards are already peaking. Rather than trying to compress a career into fast-forward, he had to embrace each step. Discovered late by former Red Star manager Vincent Bordot while playing for Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in the fourth tier, Durand stood out not through polish, but through honesty. “In terrible conditions, on a muddy pitch, I saw someone who didn’t hide,” Bordot recalled to Le Parisien. “He showed the simple pleasure of making runs, dribbling, playing football.” That simplicity has never left him.

Durand – an ever-present in Red Star’s rise

At Red Star, he became Mr Reliable. A number 7 whose qualities are deceptively effective. Compact, explosive over distance and difficult to read in one-on-ones, Durand thrives on timing rather than brute force. 

When current Rennes manager Habib Beye arrived in 2021 to steer a Red Star side to safety in the third tier, Durand was the main creative source. When Beye earned promotion to Ligue 2 with Red Star, the Frenchman was named in the Championnat National team of the season. When Grégory Poirier took the helm at the club and steered Les Audoniens to safety, it was Durand who had scored several key goals to keep the club in the second tier. At every step of evolution for Red Star comes the stepping up of their winger, nicknamed ‘DD7’ by his teammates and the club’s supporters.

Yet this season, the Frenchman, along with the rest of Poirier’s dressing room, have found yet another level. Eight goals in 16 Ligue 2 appearances have put him level with Saint-Étienne’s Zuriko Davitashvili and Troyes’ Tawfik Bentayeb. Sometimes confidence comes from experience, reliability, and the simple fact of taking pleasure in doing what you love.

GFFN | George Boxall