C’est pas le foot.
Clermont is known in a sporting sense for its rugby team, but there’s a small group of willing volunteers that are looking to put GAA on the map in central France.
Clermont Gaels have been in existence since 2008 and are unlike most GAA clubs outside of Ireland in that the majority of their members are neither from Ireland nor English-speaking.
Despite currently having only four Irish players in their ranks, Clermont have been crowned French Intermediate Champions for the last four years and the third best Intermediate team in Europe for the last two years.
Famous for their singing sessions that are led by an accordion player known as TinTin, the club have just set up a Ladies team are and are looking for Irish Erasmus students to join more than a dozen native women that are turning up for training twice a week.
Club member Alan Jennings recently got in touch to give us the lowdown on life at Les Bougnats and to tell us about the craic in the dressing room and a documentary that followed the fortunes of the club over an entire season, titled C’est pas le foot.
Focus on Clermont Gaels GAA Club
Club: Clermont Gaels (Nickname: “Les Bougnats”)
Year established: 2008
Number of members: 35-40
Biggest rivals: Bordeaux
Lyon would definitely be the somewhat “local” rivals at a four hour + round-trip. The club has yet to defeat Paris or Toulouse; the only two teams to beat Clermont in the championship last year.
However, in recent times, Bordeaux are the most direct rivals to the club as they have just pipped us to the final Senior qualification spot during the last round of the championship on more than one occasion.
Biggest representation from a club/county in Ireland: The club has only four Irish players on the books and none from the same county. The counties that are represented are Carlow, Galway, Mayo & Monaghan.
Most famous ever member(s): Mika Bonnet and Léo Blanchamp.
We’ve never had any famous club members per se, but two of our coaches, Mika and Léo, now have two caps apiece for the French National team, having both played against Italy and the Irish Expats in the last 12 months.
They’ll be hoping to represent their country this year at the World Games in Ireland.
Most memorable moment in the club’s history: Winning the French Intermediate title for the second time in 2013 after an extra-time battle in St. Brieuc.
The club won its first title on June 9, 2012 in Niort. This started an amazing run of consistency that has seen Clermont Gaels named French Intermediate Champions four years in a row (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015).
Most eye-catching scoreline in the club’s history: Clermont 2-8 Dusseldorf 0-5.
At first glance, this scoreline does not look all that eye-catching but when put into context it is.
This match took place at the 2014 European Championships in Maastricht and was the first time the club played against a team from outside of France. Add in the fact that we only had one sub and one Irish player against a full squad of Irish players and the nine-point victory becomes all the more impressive.
Player who makes the longest commute to training: Luke Gardiner.
Luke drives an hour and a half to training on Wednesday nights, has a few pints in town and spends the night, before making the same trip back at around 6am for another full day’s work on the farm.
Most dedicated club person: Jonathan Jasiulek.
Jonathan, known simply as “Presi-Coach”, is the President of the club and a member of the coaching team as well as the team’s goalkeeper.
He’s also on the committee of the French Gaelic Football Federation and often travels all over the country to various coaching seminars as well. Presi-Coach is hands down the most dedicated man at the club.
Loudest in the dressing room: Thomas Ducrochet.
The Clermont Gaels squad are well-known for their singing exploits as a whole but we wouldn’t be nearly as loud without the musical accompaniment of our resident accordion player Thomas.
He has a repertoire of great numbers that you will hear blaring out of the Clermont dressing room at any tournament, win, lose or draw.
Number of romances that started in the GAA club (feel free to name names):
Aurélie and Régis, two former members of the club, have just welcomed their first child.
Other than that, the lack of a Ladies side has meant club romances have been few and far between, but with the foundation of the first ever Ladies team this year there’s hope for the future!
Duck to water award – Best new player who had never played GAA before: Thomas Bertan.
Thomas wins this hands down. After only one month of playing GAA, Thomas endured a real baptism of fire, with his first ever matches coming at the Pan European Games in Vienna this October.
He looked like he had been playing for 30 years rather than 30 days, finishing the tournament with a grand total of 2-2.
Best story involving a club member that’s fit for print: There are plenty of good tales about individual members of the club but not many are fit for print!
Rather than name and shame people it’s better to describe a good story involving the whole team.
After taking part in the 2014 European Championships in Maastricht, the Clermont squad were out on the town in the city centre, with everyone proudly sporting their Clermont Gaels O’Neills hoodies.
The streets were packed, as you’d expect on a Saturday night, and as the team were making their way through the crowd a few of the lads started to sing a little bit.
Despite not having a clue what they were singing, passer-by after passer-by started to join in. This somehow resulted in 11 French lads in O’Neills hoodies crowd-surfing random drunk people on the streets of Maastricht.
If you check out the film “C’est Pas Le Foot!” below, you can see it for yourself.
If you’re a member of a GAA club abroad and would like to be featured on the site, feel free to send a mail to [email protected] or find us on Facebook or Twitter.
