Mohamed Haouas (28), who will join Clermont next season, explains this Tuesday in L’Equipe why he decided to leave Montpellier for ASM a year before the end of his contract in Hérault.
In rugby, the habits are that a player generally goes to the end of his contract before going elsewhere, when this is the wish of the player in question. Mohamed Houas has decided to break the rule. The international pillar of Montpellier will therefore not wait for his lease at the MHR to expire, namely in a year, to leave, direction Clermont, where the 28-year-old player with 15 selections in the jersey of the XV of France decided to pursue his career. He confides this Tuesday in The team that his choice was conveyed more by the desire to stop the Montpellier adventure than by that of joining Clermont as soon as possible, even if he does not hide that he is delighted at the idea of discovering this club that he has “always followed” and who “(him) respects”, unlike Montpellier, to hear it. Haouas, who was also sentenced last February to an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros and who will be tried again on May 12, this time for “aggravated violence” and “destruction of equipment in meetings” (” I will be in court, I am not hiding, ”assures the person concerned in this long interview), indeed believes that the MHR has disrespected him. And it is for this reason in particular that he wanted to leave Montpellier as quickly as possible, where he assures us that he wanted to extend.
Haouas does not digest the attitude of its leaders
“I tried to ask for an upgrade, but they didn’t want to (…) Me, I would have liked to stay, it’s my training club and the city that I love. People like me here, it hurts my heart to leave. And the heart of Haouas, it has not been spared by its leaders lately. In any case, this is what emerges from this interview, which transpires the bitterness of the French international vis-à-vis his current club, for which he also believes that he has given everything. “When articles came out a few months ago saying that I might be leaving Montpellier in 2023, no one at the club came to see me. I wish they (leaders and coaches) had done it, it hurt my heart. I have never cheated with Montpellier. I have always played for my club, even injured. “This new challenge and this new life”, the Montpellier resident will therefore discover them next year. Not unhappy also to take a new turn, certainly somewhat forced. “It will allow me to be forgotten in a new city. I will be able to concentrate even more on my work. And get out of his head what has all the lack of consideration in his eyes.
