The beginnings of training at Stade Rennais here at the age of 15, took his first license at
Stade Rennais in 1933. For several decades, like other French clubs,
Stade Rennais had no facilities for training young footballers. However, this did not prevent it from having youth teams and instructors to train and supervise them, such as Louis Bonneville from before the
Second World War, or the
German Fritz Raemer. Raemer led the club's junior team to a 5-1 victory over
Red Star in the final of the
Coupe de France des Espoirs on May 5, 1935. Four years later, the Stade Rennais youngsters reached the final of the
Coupe Nationale des Juniors, the forerunner of the
Coupe Gambardella, but were beaten by
OFC Charleville. The training was then limited to players whose families lived in
Rennes, many even natives of the city. Players from the rest of
Brittany only arrived in Rennes and at Stade Rennais when they reached
university age, attracted by the regional capital's status as a university town. Despite SRUC's dominant position over other Rennes clubs, many Rennes-born players—who went on to shine for the red and black—did not make their debut there.
Yves Boutet, the record holder for the number of professional matches played for Stade Rennais, only joined the club in 1955, seven years after making his debut at ''Tour d'Auvergne Rennes
; born in the Marne but raised in Rennes, international Henri Guérin followed a similar path, starting at Tour d'Auvergne'' before joining Stade Rennais at the age of twenty-two; finally, another international, Adolphe Touffait, came through the ranks with the Cadets de Bretagne before joining the club the year he turned eighteen. , here in 2010, won the
Coupe Gambardella in 1973 with
Stade Rennais. In 1973, the Rennes outfit returned to the limelight with a victorious run in the
Coupe Gambardella. After successively eliminating Drapeau de
Fougères, US
Janzé,
RC Arras,
Stade Poitevin,
CS Sedan, and
AS Monaco, the Rennais found themselves up against AS Brestoise in the final, defeated on
penalties (1-1, 6-5) at the Penvillers stadium in
Quimper. The team, coached by Frédo Garel, included a future international, goalkeeper
Pierrick Hiard; several players who went on to professional careers, such as
Jean-Paul Rabier,
Jean-Luc Arribart, and Jean-Marc Orhan; and
Christian Gourcuff, who went on to make a name for himself as a coach. In Rennes, it wasn't until 1977-1978 that the city council released a budget of 200,000 francs for the creation of the club's structure. and the first premises to welcome young footballers, set up near the
Route de Lorient sports park, were modest. was the short-lived first director of the centre. Under his leadership, the club's precarious position—mainly in the
second division—prevented the training centre from playing its role as a route to the first team. In 1985, Rennes mayor
Edmond Hervé stressed the need for the club to base its operations on the promotion of the young players it could train. Gradually, the training centre was equipped with a technical team responsible for supervising its boarders, and a new building was constructed in 1987. it was built near the Route de Lorient stadium. At the same time, the “ETP Odorico” association was created, making it easier for the school to obtain
subsidies. As for Michel Beaulieu, he hands over the reins to
Patrick Rampillon. Rampillon, also a former club player, retired from the sport in 1983 and joined the technical staff attached to the centre. After a short spell as first-team coach, he became director of the training centre in the summer of 1987.
First results, first problems refused to turn professional at Stade Rennais, and joined
Inter Milan with
Ousmane Dabo. The success of the training centre and the promotion of youngsters from the
Grand Ouest region to the professional ranks became an objective shared by the municipality and the club. Rampillon set out to improve training, using innovative practices such as a four-day training camp organized in December 1987 for the under-18s at
London club
Queens Park Rangers, who went on to finish fifth in the
English league. In the 1990s, these efforts began to bear fruit. Youth recruitment naturally focused on local players such as
Laurent Huard, who made his first-team debut in December 1990 at the age of seventeen, but also on players from the rest of France, thanks to a growing detection network. While the integration of players from the centre into the first team is visible, progress is also highlighted by their presence in the French youth teams. In 1996,
Yoann Bigné,
Mikaël Silvestre, and
Ludovic Roy became
European champions with the
French U19 team.
Four years later, they were followed by
Gaël Danic,
Jean-Félix Dorothée, and
Steven Pelé, who were crowned champions in Germany.
Yoann Gourcuff,
Olivier N'Siabamfumu, and
Moussa Sow followed suit in 2005, and
Abdoulaye Diallo in 2010. Last but not least,
Florent Chaigneau and
Jacques Faty, winners of the
Under-17 World Cup in 2001, were crowned world champions. On the other side of the coin, this success attracted the interest of other clubs. The summer of 1998 was marked at Rennes by a dispute between the club's directors and youngsters
Mikaël Silvestre and
Ousmane Dabo. The two young players, who had made substantial additions to the first-team squad in previous years, were unable to reach an agreement with Stade Rennais on the professional contracts they had been promised. Feeling aggrieved, the club took their case to
Fifa, demanding financial compensation of 60 million francs, but in the end, only obtained 28 million. In 2003, this policy also led to the search for a coach with the profile of a trainer, eager to help young players progress and build on their skills. This choice was echoed by the advent of a generation that successively won the 17-year-old national championship in 2002, the
Coupe Gambardella in 2003, and the
French championship for professional reserves in 2004. Among this generation, several players quickly embarked on professional careers at the highest level, including
Jacques Faty,
Grégory Bourillon, and
Arnold Mvuemba, but above all
Jimmy Briand and
Yoann Gourcuff, who went on to join the
French national team. Most of these players were launched into
Ligue 1 by
László Bölöni, some even before their eighteenth birthday, like Gourcuff. The progress made by the Rennes team was recognized nationally. Fourth in 2001, the training centre was ranked first in the rankings drawn up by the Direction Technique Nationale in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, based on criteria assessing the place given to young players in the professional ranks (professional contracts signed and number of matches played), their presence in the French national teams, their academic success and the status of their instructors. following on from the French 18-year-old championship title won a year earlier by the same generation of players. However, the stated aim of the training centre's management was not to win titles but to upgrade young players as much as possible to bring them up to the level required to play in
Ligue 1 as quickly as possible. but had already been training with the first-team squad a year earlier. At the European Under-19 Championship in 2010, he was also the only French player to be upgraded. Other objectives include the professionalization of the training structure, the individualization of training, the quest for greater precision and stringency in recruitment, and the appointment a year later of Yannick Menu as Patrick Rampillon's deputy director. In early 2014, Rampillon was replaced by Menu, who became the director of the training centre. During this period, Stade Rennais failed to regain the top spot in the training centre rankings, finishing sixth in 2013, and sixth again in 2015. The year 2015 is again synonymous with change: after having been an educator at the club, assistant to the professional squad managed by
Pierre Dréossi, coach of several professional clubs, and finally director of the
Stade Malherbe de Caen training centre,
Landry Chauvin returns to Stade Rennais. He replaces Yannick Menu, who was ousted from his post. His arrival was accompanied by a reorganisation of the training centre's operations, which was renamed the “
Académie Rouge et Noir,” and now includes the club's soccer academy and amateur section. == Honours and awards ==