Since this year, and it has not happened for over twenty years, a women’s team wears the jersey of Gym. Today’s football attracts more and more women to the stands. And these female supporters decide to take the plunge, to tread the pitches themselves, put on the cleats, and wear the jersey of the club they cherish. In Nice, the red and black colors are worn by players aged 13 to 16.
Toulouse Football Club, Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais, Montpellier Hérault Sport Club, and Le Mans UC. These five professional men’s teams have a women’s team playing in either the first division or in the second division for Le Mans.
So why not Nice? At any rate, this is the wish of Ange Ferracci, president of the OGC Nice Association. Instead of creating an entirely new senior team, Gym’s leaders preferred to train players who may later represent the Nice club at a high level.
“The first year will be a training year. In a squad of 17 players, many of the girls have never touched a football. We are also trying to set up a team of beginners with children born between 1998 and 2000,” specifies Gaëlle Mauduit, the coach of the under-16 team.
Gaëlle Mauduit, a former player from Monaco with a degree in hand, has switched to coaching: “I was seriously injured two years ago and when I started playing again, I no longer enjoyed it so I stopped.” Now, she finds pleasure in teaching football to these apprentice footballers. The training sessions are held in good spirits. Techniques are starting to be absorbed: controls, passes with the left foot, right foot, ball handling, free kick.
The first match is approaching. The girls will face Monaco, the old club of Lauriane (just like Souleymane Camara!). A match she will not play in, having suffered a knee ligament rupture. The tension does not seem to be affecting the team. Elodie and Deborah are confident, but Lauriane is there to calm the nerves: “Monaco is a good team. I know the level of the Monégasques and it will be difficult to win.”
She was right. Nice’s defeat was honorable, 3 goals to 1. “The goals resulted from a lack of experience of the players. There’s still a lot of work to do, but certain phases of the game seen at training were applied. It’s encouraging for the future,” shares Gaëlle Mauduit after the match.
These girls have a future. The training conditions are not ideal. While the boys perfect their technique on the grassy or synthetic fields of the Charles Errhmann complex, the girls make do with pitch number 10, the only stabilized one, the only one that scrapes the knees… Yet they still apply the winning formula: play while having fun, and after all, the field doesn’t really matter!!!
Vincent Trinquat