Former French rugby international in XV, he made a fortune very far from the oval ball.
The reconversion of a high -level sportsman is a very large subject. Most athletes quickly takes over, to avoid being caught off guard when career stops abruptly or when age or desire are no longer really in line with competition. This need is all the stronger in rugby, where the physical is put to the test and where the sums raised during an international career are not the same as in other sports, such as football. Anticipating a second life is often necessary.
This second life, the former opening half of the XV of France, François Trinh Duc, leads it with as much energy as on the ground. With 66 selections on the counter and the names of several major clubs on its CV, such as Racing 92, Montpellier, Bordeaux Bègles or Toulon, number 10 marked the 2010 generation. Now, François Trinh Duc is an entrepreneur. He still created and directs the Fortil de Montpelier agency, an engineering and technology consulting company of which he is also associate director. And it brews millions.
In 2023, the company already had more than 2,000 employees around the world (thirty in Montpellier), for a turnover of 156 million euros. A weight obtained thanks to advanced expertise in design and modeling tools, computer assisted drawing, thermal balance sheets, industrial risk control tools, waste treatment, special machines design, etc. For manufacturers.
The retraining is therefore successful, but above all was well prepared for François Trinh Duc, as he explained in an interview in Var morning: “I always thought about it because I did not want to know this little death of rugby player. Spending the day after a privileged status, when we play in front of a stadium of 80,000 people, anonymous, alone at home. on the trades that I would have liked to exercise. “
Still rugby player in Bordeaux, the opening half had already planned everything and even launched a recruitment campaign. “At 28, I passed the master dedicated to high-level athletes from the Grenoble management school in four years instead of two. The last years of my career in Bordeaux, I played, trained and in my free time, I launched the activity by recruiting engineers or going to get projects for our design office,” he explains.
An example of success for all high -level athletes who are afraid of after career and leap into the unknown. Several of them have also succeeded as well as the footballer and former Marseillais Mathieu Flamini, who also has a lucrative company, very well listed.