Bruyneel sees Decathlon going all-in for Seixas: “He’s already the boss”

Seixas won the Tour of the Basque Country this month,e became the first Frenchman in almost 20 years to win a multi-day WorldTour race. His value has risen again as a result. “I would not be surprised if something crazy is happening,” said Johan Bruyneel states in his podcast THEMOVE. “His value right now is mainly in his potential.”

The Belgian, however, had plenty to say about the rumoured figure of eight million euros per year that Seixas could reportedly earn in his next deal. “That is too much. That is what Tadej Pogačar earns, that is insane. How do you justify a salary of eight million euros for Paul Seixas? It would be for 2028, but by then he will not have won what Pogačar had won when he signed his eight-million-euro contract.”

Teams such as UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe would be able to afford that. “It is very, very early to talk about those kinds of contracts. But Joona Laukka [Seixas’ agent, ed.] is not stupid. He knows the managers, he knows what is going on, and he knows the hunger for the next big thing. He knows someone will get close to that number. But I certainly would not rule out Decathlon.”

Decathlon CMA CGM has made major strides in recent years, and Bruyneel pointed to new co-sponsor CMA CGM, a shipping container transport company, as the X-factor at the French team. “They have five times as much money as Decathlon as a company. There has to be one man who says: we have a blank cheque, we have to pull out all the stops to keep this boy.”

The team is also said to be working on reshaping its identity. It is possible that in the future, the squad could race under a Swiss flag. “If they want to become competitive, they have to leave France. That is very easy, making that kind of transfer as a company, even if your sponsors are French. But they are still in a good position. Because they have the resources.”

The team bosses already made their intentions clear a few years ago: to close the gap to the absolute top of cycling. “Decathlon have improved enormously as a team; right now they are one of the superteams,” Bruyneel observed. “They have brought in a lot of international people. They have moved away from a purely French identity. Matthew Riccitello, for example, was told he did not need to learn French.”

On top of that, Seixas has already acquired significant status within the team, and Bruyneel believes that influence goes a long way. “I think, and this is just my opinion, that Paul Seixas is already the boss. He already decides his program, the tactics... I do not know whether that is good or bad for his development, and maybe with his talent it does not matter. But he has enormous self-confidence.”