Across the courtyard at La Piverdière, Rennes have shortened the distance between promise and the first team. On 2 October, after more than two years of construction, Stade Rennais will officially open a new training complex built to bring its academy closer than ever to the professional squad.
A €40m home for Rennes’ next generation
- The club has completed a redevelopment covering 9,000 square metres of buildings and 15 hectares of land at La Piverdière.
- François Pinault, Rennes’ owner, funded the entire €40 million project and is expected to attend the formal opening and deliver a speech.
- The academy is now located only a short walk from the senior players, separated from them by a courtyard.
- The opening comes as the training centre, founded in 1977, approaches its 50th anniversary.
Arnaud Pouille, the Rennes president, said the timing adds to a period of pride for the club. Seven players developed by Rennes featured prominently in Zinédine Zidane’s first France squad as coach, with Estéban Lepaul also in the picture.
Pouille pointed to the previous season’s individual honours for Ousmane Dembélé, who won the Ballon d’Or, and Désiré Doué, named Golden Boy. He said Rennes anticipated a significant presence in the France selection, but described seeing roughly one Rennes name in every three as an exceptional moment.
Built on scouting, schooling and stability
Rennes’ alumni include Dembélé, Doué, Eduardo Camavinga, Adrien Truffert, Lucas Da Cunha, Andy Diouf and Jérémy Jacquet. Philippe Barraud, who has led academy recruitment for more than 20 years, has followed each of those players through the club’s system.
For Barraud, their progress reflects far more than the final step into professional football. The work begins with spotting and assessing a prospect, before continuing through sporting development, education and personal support.
The academy has between 60 and 65 young players across its age groups, trainees and professional trainees. Nearly 80 people work around them, including about 20 teachers and supervisors at the club’s private technical school, the ETP. Dembélé and Doué have regularly paid tribute to that school in celebratory photographs carrying the phrase “Made in ETP”.
Barraud also works with around 15 scouts, several of whom have been part of the recruitment network for two decades. Their work has taken Rennes well beyond Brittany: Jacquet was identified in Joinville, in the Paris region; Diouf in Boulogne-Billancourt; Truffert in central France; and Da Cunha in Roanne.
From Pinault’s arrival to a national benchmark
Former academy director Landry Chauvin believes the decisive change came when Pinault arrived in 1998. Before then, Rennes struggled to compete for the same young players sought by established development powers such as Auxerre, Sochaux, Nantes, Monaco, Lyon and Paris.
The club’s model has not been based on forcing every age group into one rigid tactical blueprint. Chauvin said Rennes sought intelligent, technically strong players and focused on helping them play together. Coaches shared broad playing principles, rather than operating a Barcelona-style academy identity.
Family circumstances have remained central to recruitment. Rennes meet a player’s relatives several times before committing, with trust and a stable environment regarded as essential. If a case became too complicated, including through excessive intermediary involvement, the club would walk away.
- Rennes were named France’s best academy in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
- They finished third in the 2026 ranking, behind Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse.
- The club rank fourth in Europe by the number of academy graduates playing in the five major European leagues.
- Academy player sales have generated close to €300 million in transfer income over the last five years.
- The annual academy budget is between €9 million and €10 million.
Barraud said those results should raise standards rather than create complacency. Rennes have already produced players who became professionals at the club, internationals while wearing its shirt, world champions and Champions League winners. The next ambition is to see those major trophies won while the players are still at Rennes.
La Piverdière’s new layout is meant to make that ambition more tangible. Barraud called Pinault’s investment an extraordinary tool for the club, but stressed that facilities alone will not decide the outcome. Rennes now want to pair the new environment with the ambition to challenge near the top of Ligue 1 every season, with as many academy players as possible helping to take them there.
