PROFILE | Brendan Chardonnet – Brest’s local hero turned club captain | OneFootball

Cast your minds back to January 2022. Stade Brestois had undergone a steady start to the year, falling to Nice and PSG, before securing steady wins against Bordeaux and Lille. Nothing too remarkable? You bet. Michel Der Zakarian was still manager of Les Pirates, and Brendan Chardonnet was still captain of the side. “Do you think we’ll ever see Brest play in the Champions League, give or take in 100 years?” a journalist teasingly asked Brendan Chardonnet on Youtube. “100 years? So that means I’ll be dead? No, come on: let’s give it two years.”

Let’s fast forward two years. Chardonnet is gleefully celebrating in Guingamp’s Stade Roudourou following Brest’s match against Sturm Graz. The Frenchman then takes some time to speak to Canal+’s cameras after Les Ti’Zefs’ became the first French side since the 2000s to secure a Champions League victory on their debut. “This is a victory for us, and the whole town,” the Brest captain gleefully announced.

That is how I imagine the feature-length documentary film depicting Stade Brestois’ rise to the Champions League begins. If anyone deserves to be the main protagonist in this story, it probably has to be Chardonnet.

A debut against Beckham

Born in a local village of Saint-Rénan, Chardonnet simply bleeds Finistère blood. As a wide-eyed teenager, he would make his debut in 2013 for Brest in David Beckham’s final match as a professional player for Paris Saint-Germain. He’s come a long way since then. It’s safe to say he is well on his way to becoming a club legend with Les Ti’Zefs.

“Looking back, I experienced the years with the club when we would travel to play in Châteauroux, Niort, Tours,” Chardonnet recently said in an interview with RTL. “Reflecting on those times and seeing where the club is now, and where I am on the pitch, brings immense joy. There has been a lot of hard work, and it’s a tremendous pride.”

After over 200 appearances for Les Pirates and now club captain, the Frenchman encapsulates the soul of a Brest side that has defied all expectations. Not only does he fit the ‘local boy done good’ profile, he has also been one of the most consistent defenders in Ligue 1 over the last year. Chardonnet barely missed a minute of Les Pirates’ plundering of the league last season, only sitting out one league game against Strasbourg on the bench.

He’s not exactly the most domineering profile at 1.81m, but the 29-year-old has all the qualities of an exceptional defender in the league of talents. He reads the game well, and is also able to play the ball out the back when needed. His partnership with the imperious Lilian Brassier last season was one of the most formidable central defensive pairings in the league. The proof is in the stats: only OGC Nice conceded fewer goals than Brest last season.

Changes at the back at Brest

With the focus on the bright lights of the Champions League this campaign, he’s been a leader to be reckoned with both on and off the pitch. “We feel this fervour, this empathy, this sympathy towards the club. I think the French love stories like this, where the underdog faces the giants – and wins! We try to provide emotions to the public, to the supporters of Brest of course, but also to all of France.”

Les Pirates have all but secured their place in the knockout phase of the competition, which is a remarkable achievement for a team making its debut in continental football. Yet where there has been change at Brest over the summer, Chardonnet has provided the stability and leadership necessary for Les Pirates to keep performing at the best on the European stage.

It hasn’t always been easy either, especially after the departure of his solid centre-back partner in Brassier over the summer. Les Pirates’ form hasn’t been as impressive in Ligue 1, but they have seemingly started to recover from what was a slow start to the season domestically. It has been costly already defensively. Brest have gone from the second-best defence last season to the fifth-worst this campaign after conceding 27 goals this season. Much of this has been down to an unsettled backline with injuries and those extra games in Europe this season.

Therefore Chardonnet has had to adapt this season. He’s paired up with Julien Le Cardinal as well as Soumaïla Coulibaly a lot this season. Though more recently he has been featuring alongside the young Abdoulaye Ndiaye in the middle of Roy’s back four. He hasn’t been able to strike up the same relationship with those players (the closest being with Le Cardinal), and that will take time going into the second half of this season.

Chardonnet pens extension

However, Brest are clearly relying on him being the rock in their defence. The pieces around him are shifting and he is yet to find his new long-term partner. Given that Coulibaly and Ndiaye are on loan and Le Cardinal is a player used to being deployed as a rotation option, it feels unlikely that that partner will be found between now and the end of the season.

But Chardonnet will remain. His deal had been set to expire at the end of the season, however, in November he signed a new deal, tying him to the club until the summer of 2027. With 235 appearances for Les Pirates, he is the third-most capped player in the club’s history. Given his recent extension, he will have the chance to go after the record, currently held by Bruno Grougi (307 appearances).

Yet if we zoom out and reflect on the 2024 that Chardonnet has been part of, there will only be more to come in the Champions League elimination rounds. Football is all about the stories and inspiring narratives surrounding clubs and their local areas, and Chardonnet will be forever and inextricably linked to Stade Brestois’ time in Europe as the club and the whole town’s captain.

GFFN | George Boxall