Antoine Kombouaré on the Coupe de France: “What’s going to happen next… I just know that I’m doing something big, exceptional.”

Nantes, the defending champions, and head coach Antoine Kombouaré take the field against Lyon in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France, but the match may have other implications for the French coach. Kombouaré, who is coming to the end of his contract was asked about his future in a press conference Tuesday afternoon explaining, 

“I don’t give a damn. What’s going to happen next… I just know that I’m doing something big, exceptional. You arrive at your training club, you manage to win a trophy, make a career in the European Cup. What more can you dream of? I won’t live for anything greater. I want to work, it’s my passion, I don’t know how to do anything else, apart from playing golf, I have no other passion. But once you’ve done that, what else can you do? Winning the championship is going to be complicated with Nantes, the European Cup, the Champions League, I’m not even talking about it.”

While aspirations of winning Ligue 1 may be out difficult to turn into reality in the near future the club not only won the cup last year but did quite well in European competition this year despite their troubles in the league. So just like last year, the Coupe de France has been their driving force for something to play for.  

“I can be happy differently. I was yesterday with Christian Karembeu. He had told me the trick just before we won the Coupe de France: ‘Once you have won the Coupe de France, we will have paid our debt with the club because we owe it everything. Now, if we reach the final and win it again, Nantes will owe us.”

Now winless in six league matches, Les Canaris sits in 14th place on the league table and the question of if Kombouaré is the man for the job may be fair. However, regardless if he wins the Coupe de France for the second time in a row or not, he has not only made Nantes competitive, but made them dream. 

GFFN | Tony DesRois