Flashback: Stade Rennes’ last four promotions to Division 1

Limoges – May 14th, 1983

With a game to play before the end of the 1982-1983 season, the SRFC was only one point away from definitely avoid the threat from Nimes’ “Crocodiles”. Travelling in the Limousin for the 33rd game week of the second division season, the team coached by Jean Vincent was soon reassured when opening the score on a goal by Israeli striker Vicky Péretz. Rennes’ striker Jean-Noël Dusé would then be under constant pressure from the Limoges players, but he finally managed to protect his goal despite all the threats from the opposition. Rennes won 1-0 and the job was done. Phillipe Berlin, the team’s captain at the time, remembers the game: “This is an unforgettable memory. We had a painful game. There were even incidents on the pitch between Peretz, Vésir and Bousdira. The atmosphere was electric. The explosion of joy at the end of the game matched the tension within the squad. In the dressing, Didier Dufour and I, the two oldtimers, we were crying our eyes out. I had been waiting for that day since six years”. After six years in the second tier (Rennes’ longest ever stay in second division), Stade Rennais was finally returning to the top flight. First with 54 points, especially thanks to the efficiency of the attacking duo Vicky Peretz (17 goals) - Farès Bousdira (16 goals), the Breton club finished the season in front of Nîmes and Valenciennes. These two teams would take part in the accession play-offs. In that season, SRFC also remained unbeaten for nineteen games, from the first to the nineteenth game week, before losing to Nimes at the stade des Costières, two goals to nil. Rennes made their job brilliantly and managed the fourth promotion of Rennes in the 1st division since the creation of the club. The club’s president Gérard Dimier reacted: «Six seasons in Second Division is enough ! It is time to return to the position the Stade Rennais and the city of Rennes deserve ».

- Rennes’ team in Limoges : Dusé - Dufour, Berlin, Brulez - Tischner, Zajaczkowski (Bajeot), Morin, Vésir - Péretz, Bousdira, Sither (Samson).

Rouen – June 5th 1985

After a catastrophic season in the first division, SRFC had returned to the second tier before the1984-1985 season, The 21 goals scored by striker Mario Relmy during the regular season allowed the Breton club to finish third in the league behind Mulhouse and Le Havre, and to qualify for the promotion play-off. During this final run of events, Pierre Mosca’s team successively eliminated Saint-Etienne (2-0) and Mulhouse (1-0 and 4-2). Then it was Rouen, 18th in Division 1, who rose in front of Rennes as the final obstacle. On the first leg, the “Red Devils” won logically by one goal to nil (goal by Gilles Gallou). During the return leg, at the Stade Robert Diochon, Philippe Morin scored the game’s only goal, meaning extra-times and later penalties. Suspense was at its highest. At the end of the night, Pierrick Hiard stopped Didier Monczuk’s penalty, and also the 12th shot by Rouen’s Alberto. Alain Doaré, 19 years old, was only a spot-kick away from the promotion: “I remember the expression on the face of my managers, they were pale-faced when they saw me walk towards the penalty area. It wasn’t my thing. I had never scored a goal for Stade Rennes. I had emptied my mind, alone in my corner. I was confident though. I placed the ball to the right of the goalkeeper and then it was an explosion of joy. An exceptional instant of euphoria”, Alain Doaré remembers. “This was an immense moment of satisfaction. I was usually doing the dirty work, and then I was recognized. People often talk to me about it”, he précises. After an incredible marathon (7 penalties to 6), Stade Rennes offered themselves another ticket for the First Division. Pierrick Hiard comments: “I had not experience such a difficult night since a Gambardella final. We knew the D1 was at the end and we had that in our head. If we missed, it was awful. Twice, tonight, we had the opportunity, before Doaré saved us, to go through but we didn’t. The sport won however. We made them run all around the pitch. I believe, if we had failed after that we would never have recovered from it”. After the victory of his men, President Gérard Dimier also added: « When I think about these three obstacles - St Etienne, Mulhouse and Rouen- we passed, I think the way to make is incredible. I really believe, that the rulers who set-up these play-offs might not often sit down on the touchline benches ».

- Rennes’ team in Rouen : Hiard - Le Goff (then Marin), Rio, Ninot, Doaré - Samson, Bousdira, M’Fédé - Morin, Relmy, Charrier (then Robert).

Lorient – May 5th 1990

Five years later *, another breath-taking end of the league season was profiling. Beaten a few days later by the Stade Lavallois (0-2) led by future Rennes striker François Omam-Biyik, the Stade Rennais was in the obligation to win in Lorient during the final D2 game week, but also to score one goal more than Valenciennes, who travelled at the Stade Jean Bouin at the same moment, to take on SCO Angers. François Denis, as the spirited defender he was, pushed Rennes towards the top by scoring at the 71st minute… but at the same time, the men from the North scored through Eugène Ekéké. The tension was palpable on both pitches. Then came a long clearance by Pierrick Hiard, Albert Falette escaped on the wing and cut a cross back to François Denis, whose shot was countered. The ball then took height, dropped down and landed on the head of Jean-Christophe Cano. Cano, on a hospital bed only three weeks later, was sending his team-mates to heaven 17 seconds before the final whistle! Rennes won by two goals to nil, and finally finished first thanks to a better goal difference: “We kicked off, the referee blew his whistle for full-time. We didn’t know yet, whether we were promoted to the first division. We were waiting for the result of Valenciennes in Angers. We were there, we weren’t. It was madness, and then it was total euphoria… We were on cloud nine”. Jean-Christophe Cano has seen the videos of these unforgettable moments a lot of times. “Friends were asking me to”, he said. As for himself, he was quite reluctant. “This goal was really important to me, since I was remaining in Rennes. This promotion was a consecration for the team, a reward for the club. And sincerely, I felt 100% in Rennes. Finally, it had the feeling of something unachieved and I didn’t really have time to appreciate these moments of joy”. Erik Van Den Boogaard, the Dutch forward and the club’s best goalscorer with 15 goals, would on his part discover the first division with Stade Rennais FC.

* Video Link

- Rennes’ team in Lorient : Hiard - Le Dizet, Denis, Falette - Sorin, Goudet, Senoussi - Ribar (then Miton), V. D Boogaard, [L. Delamontagne), Turban (then Cano).

Istres – May, 21st, 1994

After a 1992-1993 season in which Stade Rennes finished third in Division 2 behind the SCO Angers, Rennes were eventually beaten in the accession play-offs by Luis Fernandez’ AS Cannes (0-1 and 0-3). The Breton club then started a new exercise with the firm ambition to return to the first division. Under the management of “Mimi”, or Michel le Milinaire the « Druid of Kergrist-Moëlou", Stade Rennes managed a very good season and led the standings for most of the season. There were two match-days left to play, and Rennes needed a final point to be mathematically assured to return in D1. It was done thanks to a last victory in Istres (1-0), in front of 108 paying spectators… Laurent Huard, alumni from the Academy, forced the decision. The Breton team finally finished second behind the OGC Nice and returned to the top flight. One of the leading men in this accession to the top flight, Jocelyn Gourvennec aka the “Breton Hydra” explained: “I will discover a new world. You can put all the pressure you want on me, it won’t put me off. There has been thousands of D1 players before me, I’m only another player, that’s all! I will try and do what I can do. I will try to show my qualities. I won’t re-invent my football just because I’m promoted to D1. This is continuity, either I do it, or I don’t”.

- Rennes’ team in Istres : Rousseau - Dall’Oglio, Guillou, Denis, Sorin, L’Helgouac’h, Huard, Lambert, Ribar, Wiltord, Gourvennec, Roux.

Sources :
- Archives from Ouest France
- forum footnostalgie
- « Le Stade rennais, fleuron du football breton » de Claude Loire, Ed. Apogée.

Photos:
- forum footnostalgie
- www.foot-rouen.com