Charles Guyard // Photo credit: JOEL SAGET / AFP
The meeting between Stade Rennes and AC Milan during the Europa League play-offs promises to be electric. And if the Rennes want to win this Thursday evening, the Milanese intend to oppose it. To get there, Olivier Giroud, who plays in the Italian ranks, is counting on his lucky star, chaplain Joël Thibault.
It is a decisive moment for four French football clubs. Lens, Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes will try to cross the Europa League barrier. But the mission seems almost impossible for Rennes, beaten 3-0 in the first leg by AC Milan. The feat is essential for the Bretons this Thursday evening. But opposite, star Olivier Giroud does not intend to let the French advance to the rest of the competition.
“We always manage to find a time”
A practicing believer, one of the champions of the World Cup will also be able to count on his lucky star present in the stands: Joël Thibault. A pastor in Rennes who is above all a chaplain for high-level athletes like the Blues striker, for whom religion is an essential subject.
So, between matches, training and other demands, he manages to find time for meditation. “In the middle of all this, we always manage to find an hour, an hour and a half in the somewhat dead time to see each other,” explains the chaplain at the microphone of Europe 1. “It’s been eight years now that we exchange regularly to pray together remotely, but also by seeing each other during matches when he is in France”, he continues.
The heart swings
And like a wink from Providence, the draw placed AC Milan on the road to Rennes in the Europa League. “I will be torn for this match between Stade Rennais as a French club and then seeing Olivier score. But I will be red and black” he jokes.
Because things are well done. No need to choose his colors for Joël Thibault, Rennais and Milanais both playing with the same ones.