A little one at the grown-ups’ table. A potato seller. A shirt that can’t be found. A third change of stage. A coach who hadn’t coached for 11 years. A bomber who grew up under a volcano. A delightful provincial reality that doesn’t give up
Provincial stories: welcome to Brest, tip of the horn of Brittany, on the edge of Europe’s offside, where they play the Champions League but in fact they don’t play it here, and the Champions League shirt cannot be found. And it’s a truly chic shirt, red with horizontal bands, white on the sides and a slightly retro laced collar. Four months before the start of the top continental competition, the players and just a few thousand lucky people have it. The Sofoot magazine dedicated a report to the matter, reporting that with each new delivery the club’s store is emptied in ten minutes, that fans monitor supplies, alert themselves online and even organize pilgrimages to Quimper, where the company that distributes is based. the jackets. A spokesperson for the club admits that they started with just a thousand pieces, that they started sales late because they needed UEFA to give official approval, that they didn’t have a reference year to benchmark – they’re right here, before this year the zenith of the club was a salvation with twelfth place – who expected a high demand but not so high, who are committed to meeting all requests by the beginning of the new year. In the meantime, those who get it with makeshift means then queue up just to have the Champions League patch put on, the counterfeiters have sniffed out the deal and have flooded the web with fake copies, the club’s screen printer has had to install a camera system closed circuit to protect stocks and the cashier enjoys doing the math: between normal and cup shirts they have sold almost 13,000 from the summer to today, in a club with a controlled salary like the Brest comes out with the center forward’s salary.