Season Preview #4: Stade Brestois
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With the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season fast-approaching, we’re running through every team in the league, giving you all you need to become a Ligue 1 expert. Every day from now until the season kicks off on August 16, we’ll preview two clubs every day, breaking down their key moves and how the season is likely to unfold for them.
Stade Brestois 29
Founded: 1950
Stadium: Stade Francis-Le Blé
Nickname(s): Les Pirates, Les Ti'Zefs
Manager: Éric Roy (third season)
Save a brief and ill-fated spell at OGC Nice more than a decade ago, Roy's career as a manager had been nonexistent prior to his arriving in Brittany. Working as a pundit and as a sporting director for both Lens and Watford had kept him in the game, but he was seen as a strange choice to succeed where more experienced heads like Michel der Zakarian and Olivier Dall'Oglio had failed. After a strong finish to the 2022/23 season, the last campaign built on that to a dimension that was at once unexpected and impressive, as a dynamic and attacking side finished third in Ligue 1, securing Champions League football for the first time in the club's history.
Last season: 3rd, Ligue 1
Cult hero: Brendan Chardonnet
Born in the local village of Saint-Rénan, Chardonnet made his professional debut for the club in 2013, taking part in David Beckham's final match as a professional, for Paris Saint-Germain. Now a far cry from that wide-eyed teenager, he has played more than 200 times for the club, and is now the captain, epitomizing the idea of local boy made good.
Key arrivals:
Despite the impending financial reward of a spell in Europe's top competition, Brest have been rather cautious in their transfers to date, with only the arrival of the versatile former Lens defender Julien Le Cardinal involving a fee. Their two loan signings, though, have the potential to be pivotal, in the form of Ludovic Ajorque and Abdoulaye Ndiaye. The former returns to France after scoring with regularity for Strasbourg over three seasons, while the latter is a promising young defender, capped by Senegal at youth level, who will be an important piece of a new-look back line.
Key departures:
Roy's inventiveness will be sorely put to the test in this regard, both in attack and defence. Lilian Brassier has gone on loan to Olympique de Marseille with an option to buy, while the attack will be without Martín Satriano, whose loan spell ended, and Steve Mounié, a vital aerial presence in the box. Kamory Doumbia, who contributed six goals and five assists in less than one thousand minutes of play last season, is another absence that could be felt, having returned to parent club Stade de Reims.
Season Outlook:
Yes, the Bretons have suffered some heavy losses in the market, but there's no reason to think that they can't at least continue to be in the mix for a place in Europe come the end of the season. Ajorque is a proven goalscorer and might even represent an improvement on the more prosiac Mounié, while Romain Del Castillo and Pierre Lees-Melou, both versatile and hard-working lynchpins, are back in midfield and on the right flank. Jérémy Le Douaron and Mathias Pereira Lage are options on the left with Satriano having gone, and both have shown their potential with regularity. Defence could be an issue with Brassier, so impeccable last season, having departed, but any dropoff suffered by this side should be a minor one.
Likely XI (4-3-3): Bizot; Lala, Chardonnet, Ndiaye, Locko; Camara, Lees-Melou, Magnetti; Del Castillo, Ajorque, Le Douaron
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