This week, Alain Marschall, François Manardo, Georges Quirino were invited to the OGC Nice offices without even needing to travel there. Now, expats in Paris and representatives of three generations of Nice supporters, the RMC journalists had a charming discussion with Fabrice Mauro, the OGC Nice stadium announcer.

He is the oldest of the gang. The “most learned” according to hiscolleagues, “the only one who has known a time when the Gym were 2^nd in the league, played in the European Cup and a period during which, they knocked out Barça!”, explains, mockingly, François Manardo. “My godmother is the widow of Henri Hairabedian, replies Alain Marschall loudly. At his marriage, all of the Gym’s players were there, and my mum was accompanied by Vic Nurenberg...” The political journalist raised his eyes to the sky to admire, during his teenage years, “Eriksson, Guillou Baratelli and the stadium that screamed “Bjeeeeeko, Bjeeeeeko, Bjeeeeeko”, and then leans towards “the little Koziello, an emblem of the Gym”. 

Faced with the trio, then becoming a quartet when Christophe Cessieux made the most of the adverts in the “the Moscato Show” to make a brief appearance, Fabrice Mauro calmly fanned the flames. The flame burns and warmed up. The anecdotes poured out. Cross-shot from Platini in 78, the barricade against Strasbourg followed by a loss of voice in 90, the Place Masséna petrified confronted with the winning run of Pablo Correa in 2006, “the tears” and the pain, the glory and the hope… All this took place during a passionate debate of things that speak to supporters of all ages. “We are expats, sums up Manardo, even if it is an hour and fifteen minutes by plane, even if we have jobs that require us to be objective, our love for OGC Nice, it is ardent.”

Passion that will further deepen, if the Niçois secure a victory tonight. “Maybe I will turn up with a Gym shirt to the Grandes Gueules show” Alain Marschall suggested. “I would ask the question to Unai Emery, in his press conference – the first one I hope – asking him if Nice could still be champions” concluded Georges Quirino…