“Sunday is the last match of my career. That I stay in football, that my experience, my ideas and my networks are used is a possibility. I don’t know how to garden, I won’t have anything to do. But coach, it’s over. My decision is final.” On May 17, after a few months of freelance work in Marseille, Jean-Louis Gasset was peremptory 48 hours before the final match of the OM season in Le Havre. At that precise moment, the decision of the 70-year-old technician, previously coach of Côte d’Ivoire, seemed irrevocable.
However, this Monday, according to our information, exchanges took place between the technician and the management of Montpellier who had just thanked Michel Der Zakarian on Sunday evening after a rout at home against… Marseille (0-5). For the moment, Gasset, born in football in Montpellier where he was first a player, before occupying the functions of assistant coach, then principal (from November 1998 to November 1999 and from January to June 2017) is thinking with the prospect of taking on this challenge at the head of the red lantern in Ligue 1.
As reported by L’Équipe, several hypotheses are on the table. A role of sports coordinator, similar to that occupied this season by Frédéric Antonetti in Bastia, could garner his approval. In this scenario, the Hérault club should still look for a successor to Der Zakarian. Other sources suggest that Gasset could ultimately accept a freelance role until the spring of 2025 before being given a position as sports director next season. In any case, we should see things more clearly soon enough.
Montpellier welcomes Toulouse on October 27 as part of the 9th day of Ligue 1.
