Grégory Lorenzi to leave Brest after decade shaping rise from Ligue two to Champions League | OneFootball

Grégory Lorenzi will leave Stade Brestois at the end of the season after a decade that lifted the club from Ligue two to Champions League qualification.

According to L'Équipe, OGC Nice have a verbal agreement with him if they stay in Ligue one, while Marseille have re-entered the race in recent days, a challenge he would consider.

Lorenzi and president Denis Le Saint forged their relationship during his playing days. In 2016, when the Le Saint brothers took charge with SB29 in Ligue two, he ended his career at 32 to become sporting director, hired Jean-Marc Furlan and rebuilt the squad. Promotion followed in 2019.

With the team struggling in autumn 2022, he dismissed Michel Der Zakarian and used the Qatar World Cup break to take stock before appointing Éric Roy, a move initially mocked but soon vindicated. Brest stayed up with room to spare, then qualified for Europe for the first time. Champions League games will be staged at the Roudourou in Guingamp rather than at Francis-Le Blé.

This campaign brought safety by April and an eighth straight season in Ligue one, a club first. At 42, Lorenzi departs as the principal architect of Brest’s modern era, praised by Roy for achieving so much with limited means. He has been helping identify his successor.

Source: L'Équipe