One club man

Dubai: He still recalls the happiest moment of his life.

Guy Roux's joy was so intense that he chose to spend it by himself in a nearby forest after he had successfully led AJ Auxerre into Division Three of French football.

That was way back in 1970, but the memory is still fresh in the mind of the 73-year-old.

"Auxerre has a population of just 40,000 people," Roux said, at the offices of Dubai Sports Council.

"And one of the objectives before us was that we have to climb into Division Three of the French league.

"And when that was achieved, I felt that we have climbed the highest mountain for football in our region."

Roux was in Dubai at the two-day Dubai Sports Council-sponsored workshop for school-level coaches and trainers at the Dubai Municipality ground.

"That moment when we won our place in Division Three was so intense that I had to get away from everything," he recalled.

"I had to spend time with myself, and the best way to do this was go and find solace in a forest."

Until the arrival of Roux, very few had heard about the exploits of AJ Auxerre in the footballing world.

When he first sat with club members and laid out a plan of building his team with locally available players, no one would have thought that he would lead the once-humble team to national and worldwide prominence, spending an incredible 44 years at the helm.

Player and coach

A native of Colmar, Roux played for AJ Auxerre between 1952 and 1961 and then took over as coach in 1961 until his retirement in 2005.

With Roux in charge AJ Auxerre made it to the Coupe de France final for the first time in 1979 and then went on to win it on four occasions (1994, 1996, 2003 and 2005).

AJ Auxerre progressed to Ligue 1 in 1980 and their first and only league title came in the 1995-96 season.

There was no great secret to the success Roux enjoyed.

"For each and everyone, the formula was simple," he said.

"It was about passion, about energy, about personality and most importantly, about work ethics.

"We trained for 49 weeks in a year, seven days a week and eleven hours a day.

"And while there was a lot of hard work, at times there was the minor element of luck.

At AJ Auxerre we laid out a plan and went step by step. Nothing came easy. We dreamt big, but we were also realistic in our goals.

"The realistic goal was making it to Division Three of the league, and we achieved it.

"That was something worth reflecting and cherishing.

"Football is like music. I met the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin once and he told me that he practised for eight hours daily.

"Football is the same. It may be 90 boring minutes of play at times, but one has to be vigilant for that one magic moment during these 90 minutes."