Scores Rennes en direct
29 July 2010 | à 18h46

When Nicollin misses Montaño, and does Pinault a favour…

When Nicollin misses Montaño, and does Pinault a favour…

In an interview to L’Équipe, Louis Nicollin, president of Montpellier, reflected on Victor Hugo Montaño’s and Johann Carasso’s transfers to Rennes, signed on June 29th.

A thirty years friend of Pinault Senior, “Loulou” Nicollin admitted he had accepted a “splitted payment” to Rennes to pay the 7.5 million euro transfer fee for these two players: "But you know, it’s a French club, it is Pinault… I especially accepted for Montaño, even though I regret his departure. I adored this guy. I can’t hold him from leaving, to earn his money somewhere else”, the voluble Nicollin comments.

Since ten years, the understanding between the two clubs’ strong men is great, and the “Rouge et Noir” often came to recruit Montpellier players during the transfer windows.

In summer 2000, Philippe Delaye signed for Rennes for a fee of about 7 million French francs. Two years later, the Rennes direction gave a financial help to Montpellier – then in financial trouble and threatened by the DNCG (Management Control National Direction) – by buying Olivier Sorlin and Toifilou Maoulida. In June 2003, it was midfielder Cédric Barbosa’s turn to move towards the Vilaine banks, and he could even have been joined by one of his team-mates. Indeed, Valéry Mezague was very near of signing a contract with Rennes before being the victim of a nasty car crash, stopping all negotiations about his transfer.