Aurier reunites with Blanc, ten years after the Periscope

Serge Aurier, former right back of Paris Saint‑Germain, returns ten years after insulting his coach Laurent Blanc during a Periscope video chat on 1 February 2016. Today, at 33, he offers apologies, more or less sincere, as part of the Canal+ show “Detective Mathoux”.

The Periscope scandal in 2016

On 1 February 2016, during the Saint‑Étienne‑PSG match, Aurier used the term “fiotte” against Blanc and targeted some teammates, triggering a mini‑crisis within PSG. The player was sidelined for two months, while president Nasser Al‑Khelaïfi came to see him with the reserve team a month after the incident began.

Blanc experienced this affair as a lack of support from the management, which heightened tension at the club.

The televised apologies in 2026

In the Canal+ programme hosted by Hervé Mathoux, the 33‑year‑old defender was urged to make “more sincere” apologies to his former coach.

“I don’t know how to pretend…” Aurier said, recalling his inability to fake.

Aurier, now coach of the under‑15s at RC Lens, read a message on paper: “Dear Laurent, if you knew how much I regret… I didn’t think a word about it… Let’s talk over a coffee… please coach, forgive me.”

The tone of the staging, embellished with onions and eye drops, leaves doubt about the sincerity of these apologies, especially as the channel appears to have orchestrated the whole thing.

Aurier recalled that, according to him, the video was a “deluge” and he realises today that it was “a huge mistake”. He added that the situation remains etched in memory ten years later.

The interview ends without a response from Laurent Blanc, former manager of the French national team, whose expected reaction could close this chapter of PSG’s past.

This contrast between the controversy back then and the current staging shows that, even a decade later, the Periscope continues to haunt the relationship between Aurier and Blanc.