Costil: “to walk in the footsteps of Douchez and Cech”

On Saturday evening, Benoît Costil will return to the Stade Michel-d’Ornano, where he debuted with his training club, the Stade Malherbe de Caen. Questioned by the magazine France Football’s website, the Rennes goalkeeper admitted he has a « particular feeling » about this.

«It is the club where I wanted to succeed and I didn’t make it. Now I am proud to go back there with a Ligue 1 team, especially the Stade Rennais, one of the best teams in France”, the Normand goalkeeper enjoys. As he returns to face his “favourite club” this week-end, he doesn’t regret to have been pushed towards the exit by the Caen management two years ago. “Do they not say: “a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country”? Each of us has his own story, Costil argues. The fact I couldn’t make it in Caen was heart-breaking, but also a source of motivation to make it elsewhere. At the moment, I’m on the right war, but I haven’t completely succeeded yet, I want more…»

Now installed as a number one choice in Ligue 1, the Rennes goalkeeper is happy with his beginning of the season. “I experienced this arrival in Ligue 1 with much passion and energy. And I’ve not gone from L2 to any Ligue 1 club: it is Rennes, with the Coupe d’Europe and obligations to perform well. This a big step for me», he notes.
However, Benoît Costil realises the way he still has to go before reaching the highest level. “On short or mid-term, my aim is to walk in the footsteps of great goalkeepers such as Douchez and Čech, who spent time in Rennes and improved, the former Caennais explains. I’m not Petr Čech, I keep my feet on the ground. I am lucid, but I still want to go as high as possible. I want to impose myself, to be good, for people to consider I am reliable”. At the moment, he is on the right way to achieve that target.