At Cholet, Gaëtan Drouet is the assistant coaches regularly stay behind after collective sessions to run individual shooting work. Among the players he has guided at CB are Nathan De Sousa, Mohamed Diawara and Gérald Ayayi.
Since July, Drouet has held the top job with the DR Congo men’s national team after two seasons as an assistant. His first window ended with defeats against Angola (68-100) and Mali (76-101) before a 77-75 win over Egypt. The new head coach had only one month to finalise his squad, calling players in the first 48 hours after his appointment to gauge availability.
Jordan Sakho was among those he hoped to bring in, while several new internationals joined the group. The result, Drouet said, was a roster stretching from the Euroleague to France’s N2, featuring players such as Damion Baugh, Mathieu Kamba, Shekinah Munanga, Jonathan Kasibabu and Florent Thamba.
Turnovers and a lack of point-guard options hurt the Léopards in the opening losses, but the third-match response pleased him more than the result. Drouet acknowledged chances of reaching the 2027 World Cup are now slim and is targeting the 2029 qualifiers.
He expects to stay at Cholet, splitting his time roughly 90% with CB and 10% with DR Congo.
