Rennes In Focus – Leicester's Next European Opponents
The Foxes welcome the three-time Coupe de France winners to Filbert Way on Thursday in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League Round of 16 tie, before heading to Brittany seven days later to tackle them again at Roazhon Park – named after the Breton word for the city of Rennes.
Ahead of the first of two encounters with their French opponents, LCFC.com takes a closer look at the Ligue 1 side...
Bruno Génésio – A manager who worked his way to the top
Aside from a brief loan spell at Nice and a final season with Martigues, Rennes manager Bruno Génésio spent almost the entirely of his playing career at hometown club Lyon, notably lifting the Ligue 2 title in 1989.
Génésio's early coaching experiences were spent largely at local youth teams, before a maiden senior managerial role became available at fourth-tier FC Villefranche Beaujolais. It was a difficult start to life in senior management, though, and the Frenchman departed after relegation in 2001.
Racing Besançon secured his services soon after, first as an assistant and then first team manager, but Génésio's next move was a return to Lyon – where he worked as a scout under former Foxes manager Claude Puel.
It wouldn't be long before he became assistant manager of the reserves at OL, however, and he was the senior no.2 soon after. This enabled him to work closely with another future Premier League manager, Rémi Garde, and he remained in post under Hubert Fournier's guidance too.
Finally, in 2015, Génésio was presented with the big job, securing four top-four finishes in France's top tier and leading them to the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League in 2017. A spell with Beijing Guoan FC in China was next up before, in March 2021, he was officially confirmed as Rennes' new manager.
He sealed six wins from 10 matches at the end of last season and Les Rouge et Noir are now well-placed in the 2021/22 Ligue 1 standings too.
Key players – Ones to watch out for
Alfred Gomis, a Senegalese goalkeeper, spent much of his early career on loan from Italian side Torino at six different clubs. Permanent spells at Italian outfit SPAL and French club Dijon came next for Gomis, who was signed by Rennes to replace Édouard Mendy following his departure to Chelsea.
Gomis has been in notable form throughout 2021/22, currently boasting eight clean sheets to his name – the third highest in Ligue 1.
Another player for Leicester to be wary of is Martin Terrier, who Rennes signed after his reported £10M move to Lyon didn't go as planned. If that was considered a risk at the time, it's very much paid off for his new club, with Terrier netting 13 goals in 25 league appearances so far this term.
Former France youth international Gaëtan Laborde has also found his goalscoring touch in the last two domestic campaigns, with 16 goals last term and 13 so far this year. The 27-year-old, reportedly signed for just under £15M from Montpellier last summer, has also scored five in the UECL this season.
That included a hat-trick at home to Dutch side Vitesse as Rennes won their pool before Christmas.
Record in Europe – A developing force on the continent
For much of Rennes' early history, European football was a rarity, but over the past 30 years, supporters have come to expect it. They were regulars in the UEFA Intertoto Cup and even reached the final in 1999, losing to a Juventus side lit up by Alessandro Del Piero, Antonio Conte and Zinedine Zidane.
Although the Intertoto Cup was later abolished, Rennes found themselves regularly competing in the UEFA Cup, although they never made it beyond the group stages. The UEFA Europa League would prove to be a harder competition for the the Brittany-based team to qualify for.
A winless performance in the group stages of the 2011/12 Europa League was their only appearance in European football until 2018 – when they reached the round of 16. It could have been even better for the French side, had Arsenal not overturned a 3-1 first leg deficit.
Two seasons later, the club took part in Europe’s premier competition, the UEFA Champions League, for the first time in their history. Unfortunately, they only mustered one point from a possible 18 and finished bottom of a difficult group featuring eventual winners Chelsea and six-time UEL champions Sevilla.
This season’s UEFA Europa Conference League campaign, meanwhile, has been far more fruitful for Les Rennais, setting up this week's clash with the Foxes.
Tickets for the first leg round of 16 knockout clash with Rennes are now on general sale. To buy, click HERE.