Little Montpellier making big noise

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Olivier Anrigo / reuters archives Montepellier�s Olivier Giroud slips through Nice�s defence during a league match. (REUTERS)

When Paris Saint-Germain were acquired by the Qatar Investment Authority last July it seemed a given that the increased level of financing from the new owners would see the capital side contend for the top honours in French soccer. They haven't disappointed.

With 15 rounds to play in the 2011-12 Ligue 1 season, PSG is first overall and in a two-horse race for a title it hasn't won in 18 years.

Their position shouldn't be surprising. QIA's portfolio is worth more than US$60 billion and includes holdings in real estate, Miramax Films and Volkswagen, and the company is one of the world's top exporters of natural gas. In the first few months of their stewardship of PSG the Qataris spent over Ǩ100 million on player acquisitions, remaking a side that hadn't finished in the top three for seven years a legitimate contender.

The surprising part is who happens to be contending with them.

Coming into this weekend's matches the only team with a realistic chance of pipping PSG to the title is diminutive Montpellier, which sits just a point adrift of the league leaders ahead of their tilt with Les Parisiens at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.

Win it, and they'll go top -- a spectacular achievement for a club whose financial reality couldn't be more different than their rivals, whose modest history and colourful characters have engendered more a cult following than a mass one.

Foremost among those characters is Louis Nicollin, the big, bombastic, cigarette-smoking president of a company that specializes in the reprocessing of household and industrial waste.

Nicollin has owned Montpellier Hérault Sport Club since 1974, and over his 38 years at the helm his club has won the Coupe de France (1994) and the Ligue 2 championship (1987). Last April they finished runners-up to Marseille in the Coupe de la Ligue.

But what Montpellier lack in silverware Nicollin more than makes up for in bluster.

Earlier this season, the 68-year-old remarked that PSG was "stupid" for paying head coach Carlo Ancelotti what he saw as an inflated salary, and later deadpanned that he had never heard of PSG's new Brazilian left-back Maxwell, only that it was a brand of coffee.

His latest diatribes have been aimed at English side Newcastle, which was reportedly interested in Montpellier forward Olivier Giroud during the January transfer window. Newcastle, claimed Nicollin, was too small a club for Giroud -- who, he added, he would only sell for Ǩ50 million.

To be fair, Giroud has been an absolute revelation this season. A late-bloomer at 25, the newly minted France international leads Ligue 1 with 16 goals, which is four more than he scored all of last season.

He's also among the division's assist leaders and in 27 matches in all competitions has found the back of the net 20 times.

Montpellier's most important individual is neither Nicollin nor Giroud, however, but manager René Girard.

A former Bordeaux midfielder, Girard took over head coaching duties at Montpellier in 2009 after then-manager Rolland Courbis, who had just guided the club out of Ligue 2, began a jail sentence for his part in the Marseille corruption scandal. Girard promptly led his new team to a fifth-place finish in Ligue 1 (PSG would end up 14th that season) and a berth in the Europa League.

Under Girard, Montpellier's youth development strategy has flourished. Benjamin Strambouli and Mapou Yangambiwa, who form one of the division's top central defensive pairings, are 21 and 22 years old, respectively, and playmaker Younes Belhanda, who operates just behind Giroud, is 21.

Whether Nicollin and Montpellier can retain their best, young players remains to be seen, although if history is a precedent they'll probably lose many of them down the road to big clubs -- clubs with unlimited finances such as PSG.

But for now, something special is happening at Montpellier.

A small city known mostly for its wine production, easy pace and narrow, hilly streets is going toe-to-toe with one of the wealthiest soccer clubs in the world for the Ligue 1 championship. And if they can somehow take all three points from PSG on Sunday they'll be in pole position to win it.

That, it's safe to say, was never a given.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2012 C7