Football NewsJulien Fournier talks about his method of attracting top talent
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Nice boss Julien Fournier has revealed how he is selling young stars like Kluivert for the club’s huge fantasy.

 

A little about the topic

Nice are currently enjoying a stellar 2021-22 campaign in which they climbed to second place in Ligue 1 after 20 matches, although they are 11 points behind leaders PSG. Galtier’s side are on course to qualify for the Champions League, with the French coach quickly gelling together a strong side after a busy summer of transfers helped by huge financial backing from owners Ineos.

 

What did Julien Fournier say?

Jean-Clair Todibo, Justin Kluivert, Calvin Stengs and Melvin Bard were all impressed as Nice surprised the top four contenders and Julien now offered to understand how he was able to bring so many talented young players to the club. Julien Fournier said he may be putting out a lot of fantasy, but it’s done in a simple way. For his part, Fournier loves to move around, show the interest of the club and meet the player in his environment.

That is, Julien tries to invite herself to his house – and if he can’t, then they meet in private hotel rooms. When they want to look for a young player, Julien always tries to see the parents. According to Julien Fournier, in addition to the agent, he likes to talk to family members because it also allows him to feel the boy’s surroundings.

Fournier added about how he went about arranging a loan move for the Dutch striker from Roma that they could take the example of Kluivert, who showed interest very early on. Initially, Nice didn’t talk much to Kluivert, even though he played and lost against us and Amsterdam in the 2017-18 Champions League qualification.

Justin Kluivert came from three clubs that played in the Champions League and may have been aiming for something else. So Julien brought him to the training center during Nice’s match against Reims before going to him.

This allowed Julien’s to show him the premises and have a discussion with him in complete secrecy. At the time, the head of Nice couldn’t tell him who the coach would be, but he told him that they would see they would have a top-level coach. Kluivert is back for the second time with Stengs. They locked themselves in the office for the morning with Galtier and the discussion was about tactical matters.

According to Julien Fournier they also explained what they wanted to do as a club, the competitions they would have to play in, the competitions they would have and the ambitions they had for them. Nice’s wealthy ownership also means that Nice won’t have to sell their best players later, a fate often suffered by ambitious mid-table clubs aiming higher in their respective leagues.

Julien said the project is the same. Today, the arrival of Ineos allows them to retain their best players. In due time Gouiri would have been sold, as well as Dolberg or Thuram. The real difference today is their ability to keep their top players competitive in the long run.