Julien Sablé, Le Gym’s former captain who had been part of the first-team staff, has been named the club’s Youth Academy Director. He takes on the role held by Manuel Pirès, who the club would like to thank for his commitment and dedication to the club’s young players over many years.

Julien Sablé has ambition for his new role: “We have to develop the performance culture and be an asset to the club more than ever, with the desire to bring our youth academy players to the Allianz Riviera and top-level football.” After returning to the club in December 2022, the former Gym midfielder (102 matches played between 2009 and 2012) is now back in a youth academy role. It’s an area he knows well because – in addition to taking charge of the first team – he worked with a number of youth teams at AS Saint-Etienne. Since returing to le Comté, Sablé has been at the head of the reserve team, and worked as assistant coach to Didier Digard and Francesco Farioli.

In his new role, Julien Sablé will work with Philippe Barraud, who becomes the Youth Academy’s Director of Recruitment and Administration. Acknowledged as an excellent recruiter throughout the game, he arrives at Le Gym from Stade Rennais where he was one of the principal architects of the youth academy’s success. “I’m very proud to join OGC Nice,” said the former Lille, Tours and Rennes player, who actually scored for the Breton club against the Aiglons in December 1986. He had been part of Rennes’ youth academy set-up for the last two decades. “Julien and I are complementary. The blueprint is clear, the objectives are high: we’re ready.”

These arrivals are sign of renewed ambition, as OGC President Jean-Pierre Rivère confirmed: “The youth academy is a major part of a big club. We want to give the Youth Academy the place it deserves in our project.” “We have to take a new step forward in the standard of our youth academy development,” said CEO Fabrice Bocquet. “We’re setting things up to do that. The youth academy must be a pillar of our development and, in the long term, we have to see more and more youngsters with Le Gym’s DNA being very competitive with the first-team squad, in Ligue 1 and European competition.”

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