Kilian Mbappé, Raphaël Varane, Presnel Kimpembe, Ousmane Dembélé… The biggest names in French football have come to Clairefontaine… but also to Petit-Quevilly. All of them once took part in the U17 National tournament organized by QRM at the Amable-Lozai stadium. A sacred business card, which encourages the best French training centers to come. This year, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Brest and Monaco are making the trip. Since Thursday, and for three days, twelve teams will compete.
Teams from all over France
“There are many quality clubs, confirms Didier Zanetti the coach of Montpellier. What is interesting is to be able to gauge boys in competition mode”. His team came to complete their pre-season preparation before the start of the U17 championship next weekend. And it works rather well, for their first match of the competition, the Héraultais won 1-0 against Strasbourg.
– Pierre Frasiak
QRM plays the role of host but also of Tom Thumb of the competition. But that does not prevent young Normans from having ambition like the piston Hugo Hare: “I live in Rouen, to show that my club can compete with the biggest clubs in France. It’s not because we are a small Ligue 2 club that young people are not strong”. For the coach Quevillay, Thomas Tiarci, this tournament is necessarily a special moment because it bears the name of his father, who died 8 years ago. “That’s what I said to the players, it’s the image of the club, of the team that will be at stake, because I want a lot of respect for the name Tiarci”. For their entry into the tournament, QRM followed the coach’s instructions and won on penalties against Monaco [2 partout à l’issue du temps réglementaire].
The tournament continues until Saturday, August 20, the final is scheduled for early afternoon, at 2:45 p.m. Next year the organization would like to invite two foreign teams to continue to develop the event.