The announcement had the effect of a bomb, a kind of “Knysna” of French women’s football. No training strike, as did their counterparts in the French men’s team on June 20, 2010 in the middle of the World Cup in South Africa, but the same feeling that history can only end badly.
Only a few months before the 2023 World Cup – organized from July 20 to August 20, in Australia and New Zealand – three key players of the Blue – captain Wendie Renard, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani – announced on Friday February 24, their withdrawal from the France team. They were imitated the next day by Perle Morroni. “I support Wendie, Marie, Kady and all those who will speak because if I wear the France team jersey one day, I hope it will be in better conditions”writes on Instagram the back of Olympique Lyonnais, who however has not been called up since April 2022.
All expressed themselves on social networks to justify this decision and denounce pell-mell a “current system far from the requirements required by the highest level”, ” management “ and the “transmitted values” currently in the group. No name is mentioned, but we guess one of the targets of their grievances: Corinne Deacon, coach of the Tricolors for more than five years.
The last rally of Les Bleues, however marked by victory in the Tournoi de France, despite disappointing performances against Denmark (1-0), Uruguay (5-1) and Norway (0-0), convinced some players of the lack of ambition and requirement of the latter in training and during matches. “We have to find our identity as a game”, had launched midfielder Grace Geyoro, after the draw against the Scandinavians, in Angers on February 21. A way to disavow the recent choices of the coach in the game.
Six years of tensions
There is what happens on the field, but also what takes place outside. The management made of rigor and authority of Corinne Deacon, so often criticized since her arrival at the head of the Blue in 2017, continues to tense. Before the Euro in the summer of 2022, certain relations had nevertheless calmed down. The contrast with the many flashes of a coach indifferent to the status of her players was then striking.
Wendie Renard can attest to that. When she took office, the former international (121 caps between 1993 and 2005) had removed her captain’s armband, which she had worn since 2013. Categorical, Corinne Deacon had promised that ” as long as’[elle] lemongrass[t] in office “, the Olympique Lyonnais defender would no longer wear it. A decision on which she finally returned, in September 2021, a few months before the continental deadline. “Sometimes I talk nonsensewill concede the patroness of the Habs. I do not change but I evolve. I’m still stubborn despite everything. »
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