A story written by the people: How Stade Brestois 29 shocked the world
Chances are, if you’re a football fan then you are aware of Brest (try not to make a face), or Stade Brestois 29. But there is also a chance that you haven’t realised just how absurd their story is. Recently, they have grabbed the headlines for their performances in the Champions league, smashing Salzburg away and also picking up points against Leverkusen, Sparta Prague and Sturm Graz - which, at one point, left them 3rd in the competition. Currently, they sit at a very pretty 8th but it seems as if people are more infatuated with their ‘funny name’ and not the once in a lifetime story that led them to sit amongst Europe’s biggest and most elite clubs at the top of the Uefa Champions League table.
What we need to establish first is that the story of Brest, also known as ‘The Pirates’ is unlike nearly all other underdog stories. With most others, there is one overbearing factor which has made the side as good as they are. Leicester had 3 all time premier league players, Kante, Vardy and Mahrez all performing at a high level when they won the prem in 15/16. Denmark’s squad in 1992 contained fantastic players such as Schmeichel and the Laundrup brothers. Greece in 2004, built their success on defensive rigidity and capitalised on the dull characteristics of international tournament football. Although Brest’s achievements pale in comparison to the previously mentioned sides, the point is that usually, whether it be a squad containing one or two unknown unknown talents who just happen to be superstars, or its a revolutionary and exuberant manager who takes the whole league by storm, when looking back on a campaign, usually you can explain to someone WHY the underdogs were so good. With Brest, this is not the case and I believe this makes their achievement of qualifying for the UCL and being able to now compete in the UCL, just as wonderful. Hilariously, their story draws many comparisons to Haydn Middleton’s ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re good enough’ books (that I highly recommend to any football fan) which were basically fairytale fiction - but so is the story of Brest.
Located in Brittany, which is famed for its fierce football culture, Brest are almost the forgotten middle child of the region. Both Nantes and Rennes are much bigger and have a larger fanbase. This may be due to the fact that in 1991, similarly to Bordeaux’s current situation, Brest were relegated to the French amateur leagues due to overambitious owners spending unsustainably on South American talents they had no right in buying and this crippled them financially. The Pirates spent 13 years in the amateur leagues before finally reaching and staying in Ligue 1 in 2019, after being relegated previously in 2013. Since then, they have basically been battling relegation every season until they appointed Eric Roy in January of the 2022/23 season. The appointment surprised many as Roy had not been in management for over 10 years since leaving Nice, where he didn’t exactly rip up any trees. Instead, Roy had been working as a sporting director for Lens and Watford. He was appointed after Brest had again failed to impress in Ligue 1 and were gradually falling down the table into the relegation zone.
But initially when he was appointed, very little changed. Brest won just 1 of their first 8 league games under Roy which saw them actually fall into the relegation zone and the signs weren’t looking promising. But nobody was really batting an eyelid, it was Brest after all and a lot of people expected them to go down anyway. However, slowly but surely Roy began to get his team playing and they picked up some good form in the last 10 or so games and climbed to a reasonable 14th place in the league, which was seen as a great position for them to end the season for all involved.
Now, before we get onto the magic in what occurred the season after, I must again emphasise the size of Stade Brestois 29. As their sporting director stated, "People say, 'look at Girona, look at Bologna, look at Brest, it is the same'. No, you need to understand; come and see the stadium, the training facilities. This is a club that is not supposed to play in the first division." This is because they don’t have the facilities, theoretically, to compete in Ligue 1. Their training complex is simple and uninspiring, their stadium, which is home to a measly 15,000 people, has been described as ‘one from the middle ages’ and is not adequate for big cup games meaning they have to play their home games away at Ligue 2 side Guingamp. You see, Stade Brestois is nothing but a reflection of its city. One which was decimated by the Germans during WWII which left behind a grey city with little attraction. However, the people of Brest are proud of their city and their club. They are hard-working people who pride themselves on character, humility and hard-work which resembles the culture of Stade Brestois. They also are unable to spend any money due to the fact they’re building a new stadium.
In the 23/24 window, they spent 3.50million euros and 3 million of that was on one player. For the 24/25 season, bearing in mind that this was the season in which they’d be playing champions league football, they spent 12 million euros. They rely on loans and the free transfer market to build their squad, trying to find risk-averse moves that have little downside, very dissimilar to the transfer policies of other French teams who are constantly trying to find and develop young talents and then sell them on for a large profit. As their sporting director said, Brest shouldn’t be in Ligue 1 let alone the champions league and so their finances haven’t caught up to them yet, but they are still finding a way to inspire.
Brest don’t try and play anything fancy under Roy. He sets them up typically in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, with an emphasis on solidarity and defensive shape. Roy knows he doesn’t have the attacking talent to outscore teams which is why goals are predominantly shared around between players. Their top scorer last season was midfielder Romain Del Castillo with just 8 goals and their star performers were European journeymen who had never really been able to call a team home. For example, their starting striker is Steve Mounie, formerly of Huddersfield where he failed to make a real impression in the Premier league. Starman Del Castillo is a 29 year old Frenchmen who has bounced around Ligue 1 clubs before finally settling in Brest. But, this is the beauty of their team.
No egos.
They all work like dogs for each other, with a smart manager that takes pride on his man-management skills, saying it’s ‘important to know what a player needs at this moment’. Instead of having 3 or 4 players clearly much better than the rest, who are able to carry the team at different moments, Brest have a squad of team players that reflect the ethos of the club by working hard, with humility and dignity - taking every game as it comes. That’s what makes them special, in a period where this is so hard to find, there are no individuals, they are a true team and though it mind sound slightly cringeworthy, their teamwork can be attributed as one of the main reasons why they have managed to succeed at a time where it seems you must spend copious amounts of money in order to compete with Europe’s elite. I mean their squad literally got weaker for the 24/25 season for crying out loud, and this still didn’t deter them whatsoever and they continue to flourish in Europe.
Although domestically, they have fallen back down a level, currently residing in 11th at the time of writing, this doesn’t take away from what they have done in Europe and is a more accurate depiction of where the talent in their squad should have placed them. Brest podcaster Yann Pondaven said it best: "They (Brest) were playing it by ear and that worked for them. In the larger scheme of things, Brest wants to be an upper-mid-table Ligue 1 side; between sixth and 10th is a good place to consolidate." And this is where they are, perfectly plodding along to plan.
Brest is a shining light at a time where the gap between Europe’s elite and the rest continues to rise. They are showing everyone that you don’t need to spend money in order to succeed in the beautiful game. You need a squad willing to die for each other on the pitch, putting their egos aside for their fans and working their socks off to win games under an intelligent and sensible manager.
It may not be replicated anytime soon, but the story of Stade Brestois 29 is a nice reminder of what makes the game of football so magical.
