Captain of En Avant Guingamp’s U19s and a Madagascar youth international, Lucas Rakotozafy has joined Pau FC. The young Barea defender swaps Brittany for France’s Ligue 2 and the Béarn region.
The news echoes all the way to Antananarivo. Lucas Rakotozafy, 19, a centre-back developed at Guingamp and captain of the Breton club’s U19s, has signed for Pau FC. The France-Madagascar dual national, already an armband-wearer with Madagascar’s U20 Barea, has penned a one-year deal with the Béarn club, according to La République des Pyrénées. For the Malagasy diaspora across France — from the Paris region to Marseille — here is another name well worth following.
At Pau, a Ligue 2 side, the path is clear: he will first join the professional squad for pre-season before earning minutes with the reserves in National 3, the country’s fifth tier. It’s an ideal springboard for a youngster keen to toughen up far from home — more than 800 kilometres separate Guingamp from the Béarn. Standing 1.86 m, the Barea defender intends to turn this southern gamble into a launchpad, with one barely hidden ambition: to cement his place in the national set-up and, one day, break into Madagascar’s senior side.