“Stade Français was my child”: Max Guazzini shares his memories for the club’s 140th anniversary

2023-12-13 11:12:09

The handful of students from the Saint-Louis high school in Paris, who had decided during an evening at the restaurant Le Procope (6th arrondissement), on December 13, 1883, to name their fledgling sports society “Stade”, surely did not imagine such a fate. This Wednesday, Stade Français is celebrating its 140th anniversary around an oval ball which has magnified its history to the point of making it the second most successful club in France (14 shields from Brennus compared to 22 at Stade Toulouse). A club that had been dormant for a long time, awakened by a visionary man in the mid-1990s. Max Guazzini dusted off the Parisian institution and propelled it to the top of French rugby while shaping an innovative and uninhibited image that still sticks to its jersey twelve years after his departure. “I just wanted Stade Français to be popular,” summarizes the former founder of NRJ radio, who agreed to look through the highlights of a “reign” of 18 seasons.