He goes from the Reds and Blacks to… Reds and Blacks. At 24, French XV player Melvyn Jaminet leaves Stade Toulouse for Rugby club Toulon. A few weeks after the end of the World Cup, the transfer of the international full-back was made official on Thursday November 16. He who joined the Pink City a little over a year ago, from Perpignan, joined the club where he touched his first balls, but never played professionally.
“Melvyn Jaminet will join us,” assured Toulon president Bernard Lemaître on Thursday in the columns of Midi-Olympique. The agreements in principle are finalized, even if the contracts have not yet been signed, there are small administrative details remaining, but this will be done in the next few days. » The next few hours, even: the two clubs confirmed the player’s departure in the afternoon, confirming information from L’Equipe and Agence France-Presse.
Highlighting “the player’s desire to return to Toulon”, Bernard Lemaître was delighted to see a pure-bred Varois join the harbor club – where he is committed until 2028. “It is with a great satisfaction that we welcome in Toulon, a native of the country, who through his talent, his self-sacrifice and his hard work, knew how to enrich his technical background during these visits to our neighboring clubs, then to Perpignan and Toulouse”, welcomed the Var president in a press release. For its part, Stade Toulouse cited a decision motivated by “personal reasons”.
A month after the elimination of the French XV in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, the international full-back leaves the banks of the Garonne where he has not really established himself in a little over a year. Barred in Toulouse and the Blues by competition from Thomas Ramos, Melvyn Jaminet aspires to relaunch in his very first club, which had been courting him for several months. He who had arrived from Perpignan in a starting costume for the Blues never completely blended into the game advocated by Stade Toulouse – where he made his return during the Top 14 match in Pau, Sunday November 5.
Compensation estimated at 500,000 euros
Unlike football where the transfer period is regulated, the situation in rugby is more vague – even if French rugby officially has a single transfer window, from May to June. “A player under contract does not have the right to engage with another club more than a year before the end of his contract,” explained Clément Marienval, agent affiliated with the French Rugby Federation (FFR), interviewed by France Info in 2022. But now, movements while a contract is still running are frequent.
To make this transfer, the French champion club had to release its international full-back from his contract, and that of the harbor had to pay a large amount of compensation – estimated at 500,000 euros, according to L’Equipe -, because the full-back to the 19 selections with the Blues was under contract until 2025. For the second time in less than two seasons, Melvyn Jaminet is transferred, as in the 2022-2023 offseason, where he left Perpignan, the place where he blossomed at most high level, for Toulouse.
“We should establish a winter transfer window, with precise and supervised dates, like in football,” claimed Monday, November 13, former player Denis Charvet on RMC (of which he is a consultant), while rumors were swirling about this transfer. There, he played [Sunday] against Perpignan, if I see him play next weekend with Toulon, it bothers me. » In fact, the native of Hyères (Var) will join the Toulon group “from November 27”, and he could start under his new colors at the beginning of December. In the hope of regaining a starting place – he who only played 129 minutes during the World Cup – and relaunching a career of meteoric progression, which has slowed down somewhat for a little over a year.