Racing Club de Paris enjoyed a good run in the 1985–86 Coupe de France, where it lost in the quarter-finals for the second season in a row. In order to perform well in the 1986–87 French Division 1 season, Racing Club de Paris broke the bank by signing high-quality, foreign and French internationals (Bernard Bureau, Luis Fernandez, Enzo Francescoli, Bruno Germain, Pierre Littbarski, Pascal Olmeta, Rubén Paz and Thierry Tusseau) as well as good, non-international players from France (Loïc Pérard and Jean-Luc Le Magueresse) in the middle of 1986. Despite the heavy investments in these star players, the club did not meet its own high expectations - it only finished in 13th position in the 1986–87 Division 1 table. During that season, Mahut played in 37 out of 38 league matches, but failed to score a single goal in any of them. The club changed its name to Matra Racing in 1987. Jean-Luc Lagardère was aiming for his club to qualify for one of the three UEFA competitions. In the summer of 1987, the club hired a new head coach, Artur Jorge, who had just guided Porto to victory in the 1987 European Cup Final. Four new players - Gérard Buscher, Merry Krimau, Thierry Fernier and Sonny Silooy - were signed for the 1987-1988 season. Matra Racing was in the top three positions of the 1987–88 French Division 1 table in the mid-season, but a run of 12 league matches without a single win resulted in it finishing in 7th position in the 1987–88 Division 1 table and missing qualification for the 1988–89 UEFA Cup. In his fourth and final season with the club, Mahut played 31 league matches and scored 2 league goals. Mahut had practically decided to retire from playing football in the summer of 1988. But when he was approached by the management of the Division 2 club Stade Quimpérois, he changed his mind for he was very tempted by the challenge of trying to help Stade Quimpérois win promotion to Division 1. Moreover, the club already had or would have on its payroll players who were former football club colleagues of Mahut, such as Michel Ettore, José Souto and Eugène Ekéké. Mahut played 48 league matches (all of them Division 2) and scored 3 league goals for Stade Quimpérois in his two seasons there from 1988 to 1989.