The Rennes striker returns to his training club, OL, this Sunday during the 28th day of Ligue 1.
Leaving Lyon, where he could not break through, Martin Terrier seems to have found the ideal place to flourish in Rennes: the striker has already scored 13 times this season and does not intend to stop there on Sunday against his former club, during the 28th day of Ligue 1 (5:05 p.m.).
The Rennes player is in the process of reaching a mental level, which was a bit lacking before. And at 25, the international Espoirs (13 selections), never called up to the Blues, has no more time to waste. “This season can be pivotal for him“warned his trainer Bruno Genesio. “If he continues, he has the qualities to have an international future, but for the moment, this is not what should animate him the most, but just to continue the performances as he does.»
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The Rennes technician, who had already managed Terrier at OL (2018-19), helped revive the striker when he arrived in Brittany in March 2021, six months after the player’s recruitment. Exiled in the left corridor under the mandate of coach Julien Stéphan, the former resident of the Lille training center had suffered on his side. But Genesio put him back in the center, making him a basic element of his eleven in the spring of 2021. Terrier then multiplied: five goals and three assists between March 20 and the end of the championship, on a total of nine.
cold paver
This season, with the arrival of Gaëtan Laborde to complete the Rennes attack, Terrier has continued to evolve. He finally seems to have traded his ideal son-in-law costume to become a cold and hungry finisher. “Gaëtan helps me a lot to surpass myself, he has the soul of a leader which helps me a lot“confided Terrier in the fall.
And here he is already at 13 goals, all in L1, three assists (2 in the Europa League Conference, 1 in L1) and a penalty kick. With in particular a hat-trick scored against Saint-Etienne in December (5-0), the first of his career: opening the scoring by escaping at the limit of offside, then victorious backheel, and finally curled shot in the skylight. “It’s always a pride to score goals“, he modestly commented after the meeting, saying to himself”happy to have helped the team».
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Before this Breton success, Terrier sought himself out for a long time. Loaned by Lille to Strasbourg during the summer of 2017, he was recruited urgently, in January 2018, in Lyon by a certain Florian Maurice, now technical director in Rennes.
But at Les Gones, the striker had failed to score more than 9 goals in L1 (in 2018/2019), missing his 2019/2020 season, with only six goals in 35 matches in all competitions. With Rennes, Terrier breathed new life into his career, thanks again to Maurice, who had made it a recruitment priority. And here he is ready to assume his new status on Sunday against Lyon. That of an attacker who is starting to count in France.
