“There are terraces, people drinking their coffees. It’s very lively and smiling. I find that there is a real downtown identity. I wanted to be close to living places. As soon as I can, I do my market on Wednesdays or Saturdays. Or, when the rhythm of the season is less sustained, eat seafood in the local restaurants. »
Gaëtan Clerc…
“There are terraces, people drinking their coffees. It’s very lively and smiling. I find that there is a real downtown identity. I wanted to be close to living places. As soon as I can, I do my market on Wednesdays or Saturdays. Or, when the rhythm of the season is less sustained, eat seafood in the local restaurants. »
Gaëtan Clerc, 31, has this ability to immediately break the ice. No long blanks during the conversation, the boy is voluble. For almost an hour, the number 10 of the port club talks about everything. Of music, of his career, of teaching, of the humanities, of his conception of freedom, of current events, of cinema (launch him on the film “Interstellar”!), of his extra- sports. We perceive the permanent bubbling of the character.
Everything for others
Until 2015, its history is linear. Arrived at the age of 10 in Chambéry with his teacher parents, his older brother and his little sister, Gaëtan Clerc is one of those kids who indulge in two sports. “I had the choice of entering the basketball or tennis poles of the Alps because I had been taken in both. I decided to put myself 100% in basketball. Tennis, I like a lot, but the universe around amused me less. Then comes the Nancy training center. Collective titles and individual awards are coming. It’s time to build your professional career. After a year in Liévin (NM1, in 2010), he opted for a return to his roots: in Aix-Maurienne (Pro B).
“He is an incredible defender and in attack, he can do everything. He is in the statistical sacrifice, which makes him an underside player”
“He was 20 years old and coming out of a difficult year. He had two very simple requirements: to train and progress, remembers Antoine Michon his former coach. Very quickly, he imposed himself whereas at the beginning, I had brought him to be 10th man. “Ten years later, his opinion is definitively settled on the basketball player:” He is a boy who makes the others better. It may seem slow but it’s only an impression. He is an incredible defender and in attack, he can do everything. He is into statistical sacrifice, which makes him an underrated player. He only thinks through the prism of the team. »
Michon, who was also his trainer at Boulazac (Pro B) and Caen (Pro B), is full of praise for the human: “He is a very endearing person. He is interested in others and he doesn’t do it in a feigned way. When he is no longer in a team, that’s when you notice the lack. »
2015, a pivotal year
But in 2015, in full ascending phase (in Fos-sur-Mer, Pro B) and at a time when some Pro A clubs are eyeing him, Gaëtan Clerc says stop. At 24, the player put an end to his professional career. “He’s an atypical person in the industry. I think at one point the microcosm of basketball was superficial to him. He deeply wanted to be in tune with himself. And not having to play a role, ”continues Michon.
“I had to move on. The time spent being well was not important enough compared to the investment”
Clerc comes back to this episode: “I no longer felt happy enough in that career. I felt like I had to move on. The time spent being well was not important enough compared to the investment. This world (of basketball, editor’s note) no longer suited me. Sportingly, the moment was catastrophic to stop but I had to do it. In a very coded daily life where human relationships are incidental, man no longer finds pleasure.
“I will train, for sure”
During this one-year breath, Gaëtan Clerc will feed on other things. Returning to the Hope Pole in the Alps, this time as a boys’ coach, Clerc also coaches women’s in Voiron. With the line of sight passing the state diploma (DE) which allows him to be assistant-coach in Pro B or main coach in N2 or Ligue 2 for girls. Received at 25, Clerc has secured his post-career: “This experience reinforced my choice to take a break. I understood a lot of things. Before, I thought like a player and then I started to think like a coach. I will train, that’s for sure. It’s something that I like too much. “A powerful feeling born at the age of 21 when he led a Pre-national team in Aix-Maurienne. “I am convinced that he will be an excellent trainer and/or coach,” says Michon.
Intellectually enriched, the leader-back resumes the thread of his career. Always with Antoine Michon in the background. Victorious in the Pro B play-offs with Boulazac (2017), Clerc then worked in Nancy (Pro B) then in Caen (Pro B then N1) before settling down in the summer of 2020 in La Rochelle. With always this desire to feed his spirit. a distance student in master 2 management at EM Lyon business school, which should lead him to validate his course in October, Clerc has a well-made head.
“The goal is that when I stop my career, I will be employable. I will be on the “basketball” market with the DE and the master can allow me to opt for the business world. Knowing that I will also be eligible to give courses at the university with the obtaining of the diploma. Transmitting, teaching, learning and taking an interest, Gaëtan Clerc has built himself through these values. His involvement in the National Basketball Union, where he is in charge of the interests of NM1 players, confirms his marked taste for taking a stand and defending points of view. Rigorous on the field as much as he is eager for freedom outside, Gaëtan Clerc is deeply human.
