2023-06-02 18:18:49
“Leeeeeeet’s gooooo! The cry, released in English with a very strong tonality across the Atlantic, resounds all around the lawn where several groups of mirrored cabinets are snorting. On the hill overlooking the field, a loudspeaker spits out big American sound to create an atmosphere for all these beautiful people. For the past month, this sports complex in Antony has become accustomed to a singular spectacle, that of the training sessions of the Musketeers of Paris.
If the name, which is also available in its Anglo-Saxon version (Musketeers), does not evoke much to you yet, it is normal. We are talking about a team that has never played a single match in its history. Finally, until this Saturday June 3 and this meeting with the Germans in Cologne and the official debut of the first French American football franchise of the ELF, a private European league launched in 2021 and played from June to September.
A new attempt to develop this king sport on our continent in the United States, after a defunct “NFL Europe”. If Germany is the economic heart of this league, a handful of investors are convinced of the potential of this sport in France. And put on the Musketeers, a time called “Saints”, carried by Frantzy Dorlean, ex-university player in the United States, and Marc-Angelo Soumah, media figure of “US football” in France known for having participated in the preparation of an NFL roster in 2003.
International recruitment, matches at Jean-Bouin
The franchise, based in Paris, has a budget of around one million euros to establish itself locally and recruit players. The first stage materialized with the installation of its training center in the facilities of the US Metro, in Hauts-de-Seine, and the choice to play the matches at Jean-Bouin, the usual enclosure of the Stadium. French, where the Musketeers will play for the first time on Saturday June 10 against Stuttgart. The franchise hopes to attract 5,000 spectators and has started looking for a French broadcaster for its meetings, available in the meantime on the ELF application.
The second was made little by little, with a hard core made up of players who worked for the French team, European champions in 2018, and the Flash de La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis) and made up in particular via a detection camp in November. A term workforce of 60 players, mostly forced to work in parallel, made up of ten foreigners, four Americans and six Europeans.
“It was easy to sell Paris to these players, underlines Frantzy Dorlean, president of the structure. Foreigners love this city and they are told that they have the opportunity to make history by participating in this adventure. “I feel a superb energy in this project, abounds the American quarterback Zack Edwards, responsible for leading the game of his team. The facilities are tops, we have everything you need to feel good. »
“We want to train guys who may be able to go to the NFL”
The sports boss? The American Marc Mattioli, passed by Italy, and at the head of a Franco-American staff. This Thursday evening of training, it is he who sends the balls to his players in the heart of a session where we exchange in English. “The mayonnaise takes well, notes Jason Aguemon, a Frenchman who returned from Germany for the project. We have been training for a month, but we already knew each other from before. I feel like we can do something cool. »
“We are going to try to create our brand, our identity, underlines Marc-Angelo Soumah. We want to play American football, but French style. In our way of working with our environment, in our animations around the matches and in this team, made up of 80% of players from here. We want to promote our French talents, and train guys who may be able to go to the NFL. But first, there is a first season awaiting its Musketeers.
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