Swiss love story

When people think of Rennes, they think of Sweden. Källström, Isaksson, Hansson and Edman are all swedish internationals that played for Rennes over the past 3 seasons. Rennes were also in the bidding for Wilhelmson (who went to Nantes, Roma and then Bolton in the space of 14 months), Jönsson (who joined Toulouse) and Elmander (who also went to Toulouse). Overall, it just looks like Rennes has tried to buy every good swede over the last 6-7 years, and managed to get quite a few.

But Rennes’ love story with Sweden is very recent. And as Rennes prepare to play against FC Basel, it’s good to remember a slightly older love story Rennes had : the one with Switzerland.

I can only recognise Frei (9). But we still love them. Well, him.

Now, I’m not going to lie, because in terms of love stories, it’s not the longest. But it’s far more intense than most. With barely four players I can think of that played for Rennes that were Swiss, but two made a great impact in the Stade’s fortunes, one failed to make the mark, and the last one is looking just as promising as the first two…

The man who started it all was Marco Grassi. Marco “Who?” I hear you ask. And unless you’re Swiss, a Lyon, Monaco or Nice follower, then you’re entitled to wonder who this “Marco Grassi” is. Marco Grassi’s career was pretty average as far as professional footballers’ careers go. He played for Chiasso, Zoug, Zürich, Chiasso (again), Zürich (again) and Servette in his early years (he was 26 by that time), and was considered to be a good striker in the Swiss league, even though he didn’t ever earn a long-lasting heart in the place of Swiss fans. He was transferred to Rennes in 1994, as Rennes attempted to manage to stay up in Ligue 1 after 25 years of hopping between divisions. The squad that had managed to clinch promotion was solid, managing the 2nd place. But it was more on a good defensive record than any offensive ability that promotion had been acquired. Grassi was brought in to give a new kick to the attack force, and he duly delivered. Considered to be a “playboy” due to his cute looks, Grassi showed that he wasn’t just a playboy : for his first season, he scored 15 goals in 28 games and showed that he could perform under pressure, clinching vital points to avoid the relegation battle. Rennes finished 13th, their best finish in 10 years (one could say that since Rennes went 12-12-14 against 12-9-17 ten seasons earlier, it was their best finish in 24 years).

That was how it all started. After years of wandering between divisions, Rennes had found at last the player that would bring them redemption. Grassi had been catapulted from swiss obscurity to Ligue 1 limelight, and he proved it wasn’t a fluke season by netting 11 goals in 27 games the following season, despite being identified as Rennes’ key striker. How “key”? Well, he scored a quarter of Rennes’ goals that season, and slightly more than a quarter of Rennes’ goals the previous season. And he was also able to create space for his team-mates or give assists. As Rennes finished 8th in Ligue 1, Grassi’s goals qualified Rennes for the Intertoto Cup, meaning Rennes made their european comeback after 23 years, their last european campaign coming after the French Cup win in 1971.

But like all real love stories, there was a sour end. After two seasons of fabulous performances, and forming a great striking partnership with the then young Sylvain Wiltord that yeilded 26 or Rennes’ 44 goals in 1995-1996, Grassi left for Monaco. He picked up a Ligue 1 winner’s medal at the end of the 1996-1997 season, but his transfer to Monaco had been a massive disappointment. 12 games in six months without a goal had pushed Monaco to loan him out to Sion for the second half of the season. After that he never regained his previous scoring record, and went on to play for Cannes, Lyon and then Nice, never impressing, and always playing as the shadow of the player he was at Rennes. Rennes missed him dearly during the 1996-1997 season, because even if Stéphane Guivarc’h was the top goalscorer with 22 goals with Rennes’ colours, the Grassi-Wiltord parnership was lost, Wiltord only scoring 3 goals. Grassi’s presence and influence on the game was sorely missing, and his replacement by Guivarc’h was a failure, Guivarc’h being an out-and-out striker, whilst Grassi was a more team-oriented player. Rennes’ midfield organisation suffered, and after being 8th in 1995-1996, Rennes fell to 16th in 1996-1997, only 3 points from relegation.

In 2003, Rennes signed another Swiss that would make his place amongst the great players of the Stade Rennais : Alexander Frei. Frei was spotted by Rennes in very much the same manner Grassi was spotted : a few good seasons in the Swiss league, a trip that ended with him as a key member of the Servette squad, and a goalscoring ability that was looking very good (36 goals in 64 games for Servette). However, Frei was also pushing into the Swiss national team, something that Grassi never managed to do, and had been instrumental in bringing the Swiss under 21s to a european semi-final. Rennes decided that should Frei be able to leave Servette, they’d get him. And they did.

Frei settled almost instantly into a Rennes side that had been hovering around where Grassi had left them : mid-table obscurity, with occasional “good” seasons that would push for european qualification, and “poor” seasons that would mean relegation battles. Rennes were coming off a 15th place season, where satisfactions had been far and few between. In attack, Piquionne had been decent, with 12 goals, but 35 goals in 38 games show how weak Rennes were in front of goal. Frei turned Rennes’ attacking fortunes around almost instantly, with 20 goals in his first season. With only 28 games played, Frei was the second best goalscorer in Ligue 1, and he wasn’t a player who scored from far, but a player who could find the back of the net as long as he had the ball in the 16-yard box. Having lead Rennes to a 9th place and having formed a great partnership with Källström, Didot, Monterrubio, Barbosa and Sorlin in a flowing midfield that lead pacey attacks down the wings (Monterrubio and Sorlin) or deep through-balls (Källström) for a fast, strong and accurate striker (Frei), the challenge to take Rennes even higher for his second season was the next to fall.

Rennes were 4th the following season, achieving the best finish ever for the Brittany formation. And Frei was central to it, with 20 goals in 36 games, with the particularity that he didn’t score a single penalty, meaning that he had scored 20 goals in open play, well more than the second best, Sébastien Mazure and Matt Moussilou, who had scored 13. Frei also showed he was a far more versatile striker than other Ligue 1 players, with 7 headers, 9 right-foot goals and 4 left-foot goals. This made him the player who had scored the most headers and the most left-foot goals, and only 1 goal behind the right-foot best. This versatility was increased by the playing style Rennes had continued from the previous season, with Källström, Sorlin and Monterrubio the creative forces behind Frei’s continued excellence.

Frei’s story also had a sad and sour end. At the end of the 2004-2005 season, John Utaka was brought in to replace a mediocre Toifilou Maoulida and Sorlin was sold to Monaco. What’s more, Frei injured himself for the first 5 months of the season, meaning Rennes’ game-plan was undone before the season even started. In the end, a new style emerged, one that relied more heavily on midfield creativity in the middle of the pitch, and less on the wings. Gourcuff, Källström and Didot battled for places in the starting eleven, and despite Monterrubio’s presence, the play revolved more and more around Källström. Utaka showed good scoring abilities, but preferred to run at defenders, meaning that Frei’s more positional play was incompatible with Utaka’s running style. With the team lop-sided and more stationary in midfield, Frei found it hard to come back to his best form. With Utaka and Briand fighting against him to fill the often lone spot in front of a 5-man midfield, Frei ended up giving a good season, but that was far from his best. 7 goals in 23 games and a lot of difficulty settling into the game-plan meant that when autumn 2006 came, Frei had left for Dortmund. 46 goals in 100 games, 9th, 4th and then 7th place finishes, as well as being the best goalscorer in Ligue 1 in 2005 are enough for the Swiss love story to have grown stronger however. His departure came at the same time as Källström and Gurcouff’s transfers, meaning the end of a side that could have done great things for Rennes.

Ohrel, Rochat and Esteban.

The last three Swiss players that complete this short but intense love story are Christophe Ohrel, Alain Rochat and Julian Estéban. Ohrel was a defender that joined Rennes in 1994, probably in the same train as Grassi, since he also came from Servette. Yet whilst Grassi impressed, Ohrel didn’t. Even though he played 34 games, he was off-loaded to Saint-Etienne, who were 18th in Ligue 1. His season there ended with Saint-Etienne going down to Ligue 2, and Ohrel was invited to return to Switzerland. Rochat was also a defender, that Rennes bought from Young Boys Berne in 2005 as a defensive cover. However, he didn’t make the grade for first team football, and after only 9 appearances in the Red and Black tunic, he was sold to Zürich. He wasn’t particularly dissapointing, but he lacked experience, didn’t have much physical impact and was a bit short on concentration. Since he’s only 24 though, I won’t sign him off as “one of those players that never made the grade”, but I’m not far from it. Julian Estéban is also very young. At only 21, he scored last week-end his first ever goal for Rennes, after 32 minutes spread over 3 games. Estéban is a big talent, who is already considered by various Swiss supporters as being the long-term successor to Frei at the head of the Swiss national team. Now, he’s just got to show everyone that he’s able to do it. And if he scores every 32 minutes, then it’ll be fine.

Oh, I almost forgot. Our love story with Switzerland has been stained by a defeat 2-1 inflicted by Lucerne in 1996, so I’m sure Basel will want us to get back on good terms and will let us win…

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