the Guillou academy, a training center like no other

The show is more choreography than football. While the thermometer still displays over 30°C, the kids from the Jean-Marc Guillou academy warm up by crossing the field. The scene would appear ordinary if the teenagers were not juggling the ball: with the feet and knees but also from the inside and outside of the foot or even from the head and shoulders… A skillfully executed ballet which is sometimes danced with several people: some do the same aerial balloon exchange workshop in twos or threes.

Another incongruity is that the academy residents play barefoot. A way to learn to better control your ball, to acquire the right movements from the start and to limit the risk of injury. The shoes will arrive much later, provided you win them in technical exams. This cocktail is the Guillou method.

The golden age of acquisitions

“The Jean-Marc Guillou method is simple: it’s recruiting children of the right age, around 12 or 13 years old because we consider that this is the golden age of acquisitions. It’s then a matter of train them a lot. And for that, we make them play barefoot because it reduces fatigue. Without shoes, they develop better touch on the ball, better support, the game goes faster. Barefoot, you make the right movements, otherwise you hurt yourself,” explains Adrien Gaignon, manager of the Jean-Marc Guillou academy in Ivory Coast and nephew of the founder.

The Guillou method also involves a drastic selection at entry. Adrien Gaignon estimates that out of 1,000 children seen, they only retain one. He reveals the series of exams to be taken:

“We have our network of coaches. We announce that we are doing a detection and the goal is to see as many kids as possible. We make them play in teams of three to be sure that they touch the ball. Sometimes, in one minute, we make up our minds and they are eliminated, it’s quite cruel”, says the trainer, who also went through the academies of Madagascar and Ghana. “Of the 300 that we see at once, we keep 20, we replay them and we refine them. In the end, we only keep five. We redo detections elsewhere so that in the end, it There are only around fifty left who are brought to the academy for a week.”

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“We keep them until the end”

“They selected 47 players and we came to the boarding school to do a one-week test,” remembers Christ Oulaie, an academician since 2018. When I was selected, I was so happy because my father was there too. So I was really humbled to be one of the best.”

Once passed through all the sieves, there remain promotions made up only of around ten young people who will stay there until they turn 18.

“Once in the academy, we keep them until the end, assures Adrien Gaignon. If it turns out that we are deceived about a potential, we assume responsibility by keeping them until the end of the course. he gets seriously injured to the point of being lost to football, we at least make sure that he completes his schooling with us.”

“Technical degrees” to master

The mark of the football players trained by the Jean-Marc Guillou academies is also due to their extraordinary technical mastery. The football theorist has in fact developed a progressive and restrictive training method involving the mastery of “technical degrees”. Series of exercises to master over the years demonstrating the ability to do what you want with the ball with your body. From simple juggling to crossing the field accomplished in less than 30 seconds by exchanging pigeon heads or wings with partners.

The kids often arrive early for training to work on this discipline which is the alpha and omega of the academy. And every Thursday, they present their progress to their trainers. If the 3^e degree is acquired -usually during the 3^e year at the academy – players earn the right to play with shoes and a small pay of 20,000 CFA francs per month.

“We work on the degrees before training. Under the sun, we can get discouraged. We fall and we get angry. It’s very difficult to get the shoes on,” judges Chris Oulaie. “When I got my shoes, I was emotional. We had a party!”

“There is also the idea of ​​creating camaraderie and a body with this idea of ​​mastery of degrees. In fact, the young people do not all play together at 11 against 11 with shoes until the last of them didn’t take the exam. So they help each other,” says Jean-Marc Guillou who, at 78, continues to develop his academies.

The academy is also based on a unique playing philosophy. Total football, inspired by the precepts of Johan Cruyff: when his team has the ball, it is not in danger, and the attacker becomes the first defender while the goalkeeper is the first stone of the attack.

“It was difficult, it was a game that we are not used to. We are asked to release the ball quickly. Move around, be in the right place, at the right time. In the neighborhood, we like to carry the ball to show that we are the strongest. Here, we learn that it is together that we are strong”, comments Moudibou Fofana, 16, who is working on her third degree.

“For us, football is not about winning duels. On the contrary, it is knowing how to avoid them. But the philosophy is to play as intelligently as possible and have fun while playing. And give pleasure to the spectators too”, summarizes Adrien Gaignon.

A method that has been exported

Over the years, the Guillou method has been exported to the four corners of the world, often with a significant impact on local football. The recent successes of Vietnam’s youth teams owe much to the implementation of the method in Pleiku, in the center of the country. Mali, which is currently competing in the CAN, has 9 players out of 27 from the Bamako academy.

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“We have exchanges between academies. All the academicians in sub-Saharan Africa know each other, says Adrien Gaignon. This shows diversity to the children. If the method is the same, they see other ways of playing and try to imitate them. They learn from the adversary but also have human exchanges and cultural exchanges.”

The Ivory Coast of the 2000s owes a lot to Jean-Marc Guillou who used to joke about a golden generation made up of “10 academicians and Didier Drogba”. It must be said that the former French international number 10 had established his very first academy in the Land of Elephants, on the aptly named “Sol Béni” in Abidjan. He notably trained Kolo and Yaya Touré, Aruna Dindane, Siaka Tiéné, Arthur Boka, Didier Zokora.

Footballers who revealed themselves to the world in February 1999, during the African Super Cup. The academicians replaced the former players of Asec Mimosas, all sold. And the group of kids, the oldest of whom is 19 years old, wins their duel against the veterans of Espérance Tunis. A legend is born. Subsequently, they will play two CAN finals and many will play in major European clubs.

The first Ivorian academy had to close, due to a financial conflict between Jean-Marc Guillou and Asec Mimosas over income from transfers from academicians. The return of “JMG” to Ivorian soil has everything of a homecoming:

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“We came back here in 2016 at the request of the former president of the Ivorian federation, the late Sidy Diallo. He wanted Jean-Marc to return and made available to us these facilities that he owned. We took them back and retyped”, says the manager of the Academy.

“We are a little far from Abidjan. The people who work here spend the week before returning. The advantage is that we are quiet to work. But being Abdijan would allow us to reduce our costs” , explains his nephew, Adrien Gaignon. A move is being considered.

It must be said that Djékanou is not next door. It’s almost in the middle of nowhere. To reach this locality, it takes between two and three hours from Abidjan – first by taking a motorway in perfect condition, then increasingly rough roads before ending with 150 meters of track “taking left at the mosque”.

There, behind a high gate, hide the buildings of the JMG academy, all repainted yellow and blue, the team colors. It is in these buildings that academicians sleep, eat, go to school and, above all, train. Nearly 16 hours of football per week and 20 hours of class.

“We are taught to be men first. Before football,” observes Oulaie Christ. Adrien Gaignon adds: “They’re here to play football and they’re with friends, so it’s just happiness for them. Even school is going well, they’re moving from a system where there are 80 per class to here , where there are less than 10, with the teachers who come to them.”

Diane ensures stewardship

The watchful eye that wanders everywhere, a person is one of the essential cogs of the academy, even if his role has little to do with football. Diane watches over stewardship. The Togolese was already part of the adventure in the Ghanaian academy, which closed recently. From now on, she watches over the young people of Djékalou.

“They call me the ‘Academy mom’. As they’re not with their mother, it’s me who takes care of everything a mom does for them. When they have a little boo-boo, they come to see me. I take care of everything that happens at the academy, I watch over the cooking, the gardening, she explains. I have 65 children. When they arrive at the academy, it’s okay , but when they reach puberty, it deteriorates. They speak badly to me but I answer them. I am both their mom and their dad,” she explains with a smile that suggests a strong character. But who hides a heart of gold. She is quickly moved to tears when talking about the passage of her former “children” in the academy.

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“When they leave, it hurts,” she concedes. “But when I see them succeed, it’s such a source of pride. They become what they should be. I know that not everyone will succeed, but that’s my wish for everyone.”

Among the students trained at the academy, around half will manage to join a European club. And only 50% of these recruits will break into football. Places are expensive, even when you come from the Jean-Guillou academy.