Stade Brestois are one of the season’s unlikely success stories, currently sitting third in the table. As much as the team seems to have come from nowhere, one particular player embodies that to an even higher degree, forward Jérémy Le Douaron. Today we take a look at his unlikely rise from amateur football at the age of 22 to playing a leading role for Éric Roy’s team.
To rise from an unheralded position to success in Ligue 1 Uber Eats isn’t without precedent. Jonathan Clauss was playing in the lower tiers of German football before becoming a French international, while Olivier Giroud toiled in Ligue 2 before breaking through with Montpellier in his mid-twenties, and Le Douaron looks to continue that trend — a path that was also traversed by Pierre Lees-Melou, who was also playing amateur football before signing with Dijon’s reserves in 2015.
Despite having spent time on the books of fellow Breton side EA Guingamp in his teens, Le Douaron was, at 22, playing for fourth-tier Stade Briochin, a small club located halfway between Rennes and Brest on the north coast of Brittany. He joined Brest on a free transfer in the summer of 2020, with the club’s limited budget particularly stretched owing to COVID-19, and even within those means was something of an outlier, being given a short-term contract and asked to prove himself on the pitch:
“Brest gave me my chance, but it was up to me to prove myself. I had everything to gain, I had to show my qualities. I signed on a one-year contract with an option. I was the only new signing who came from amateur football (Steve Mounié and Franck Honorat were among his fellow arrivals), but the pressure was positive. I have never been too stressed, the important thing is to have fun. I had joined a team that I was used to watching play on TV.”
That lack of stress doesn’t mean that Le Douaron hasn’t worked hard. Les Pirats have always been a team defined by their graft, and that is something that has continued apace under Éric Roy, with the team going from avoiding relegation to becoming a real contender for European football under the veteran manager.
Le Douaron’s improvement has also been marked. A lanky forward capable of playing centrally as well as on the left wing — his usual position — he played just 800 minutes in his first season in Brest. The following campaign saw that figure nearly double, and his goal tally leapt from one to five. That improvement continued apace last year, as he hit double figures for the first time in his top flight career, and is on four goals in the current season, just behind leading scorer Romain Del Castillo.
At 6’ 2”, Le Douaron is strong in the air, aiding the aerial prowess of Mounié and fellow striker Martín Satriano, and also works hard pressing on the flanks, as he and Del Castillo are among the league’s top forwards in terms of pressing. This has helped the team lead Ligue 1 in tackles made and aerial duels won, something which has translated to a move up the table as well.
Now on five wins in a row in all competitions, the team sit third ahead of next Sunday’s trip to Paris Saint-Germain, and could close to within six points of the leaders with a result, but with Le Douaron as the embodiment of their approach, and after last year’s relegation scrap, they remain humble, as he told the club’s website earlier this season, “We are moving forward with great humility and, above all, we do not forget that our first objective remains survival in Ligue 1.”
With that modest goal now all but achieved, it’s safe to say that Le Douaron and his teammates might want to reevaluate their objectives, with a possible trip to Europe in the offing, testament to yet another unlikely success.
