If he can spare himself answering journalists’ questions, he is none the worse for it. Among the most sent to the front, last season, when everything was going wrong, Alban Lafont continues to apprehend his new role as captain. “I’m still learning because it’s still quite recent“, confirms the 23-year-old player, nominated for the UNFP title of best goalkeeper in Ligue 1.
Author of a very good season in the league, the Franco-Burkinabe has so far waxed the bench in the Coupe de France. But an increasingly insistent background noise would lead him to keep the cage of FC Nantes, this Saturday evening in the final of the Coupe de France. “Whatever the decision, I will take it well, I will respect the choice of the coach“, insists in public Alban Lafont who has the opportunity to lift, around 11 p.m., the first title of the Canaries for more than 20 years. The first of his career.
The Stade de France, a first for the former Bleuet
Criticized by Antoine Kombouaré on the arrival of Kanak in February 2021 for his average performance, Alban Lafont was quick to reverse the trend. “It necessarily stung me because I am a competitor and I want to be efficientconfides the former doorman of TéFéCé. But I took it well becausehe told me things clearly and that’s what kept me going.“Since then, the phenomenon of precocity – the youngest goalkeeper to start in Ligue 1 – has impressed. With, as a bonus, a five-star match against the club from the city of Light. And is one of the great architects of the recovery of the Yellow House.
“We play relaxedsays the one who was recently pre-summoned to the France team, by Didier Deschamps. Since I started, I have almost always played maintenance and this is a season where things are going much better with great things that can happen at the end. It feels good, to experience positive things at the ranking level.“And of course in the Coupe de France, a competition that Alban Lafont played very little in his career.
We feel this expectation and we could not be closer to the goal. It’s great, it’s football, it’s the kind of moments you want to live in a career.
“There is a very different atmosphere of the championship“, loose Lafont, like so many others before him. The semi-final against Monaco only confirms it.”It was hugesays the player who passed through Fiorentina, Italy. On the bench, I was both a supporter, a teammate and I tried to help while keeping in mind that I was likely to come into play at any time, if something happened. thing. It was a lot of emotions that intertwined and it is true that it was totally different from what I usually do the rest of the season.” At the Stade de France, an enclosure that the ex-Bleuet will discover, he should be able to find his solitary routine.
– Olivier Lanrivain
It’s a pleasure to work with people like the coach.”
“To have done this course there all together, it’s just magnificenthe repeats. It’s the Stade de France, what, it’s legendary, but we don’t go there to make tourists. We are going there to win and we will have to be relaxed and focused at the same time, against this very good team from Nice.” A club against which the Yellows have systematically lost in the last four confrontations. It was in the league. There, the atmosphere and the stakes will be quite different. “The people around us tell us a lot about it, at least for meblows the youngest captain in Ligue 1, a position “which is not neutral“. We feel this expectation and we could not be closer to the goal. It’s great, it’s football, it’s the kind of moments you want to live in a career.”
The role of vice-captain helped Ludovic Blas. It forces him to respond to each match as in the Cup where he is ultra-efficient.
This renewal of the Yellows, Alban Lafont attributes it to his coach, Antoine Kombouaré. “Clearlyhe continues. He set a framework and everyone immediately bought into what he was saying. He is also a frank person, who says what he thinks. It’s always a pleasure to work with people like that.“His group quickly adhered to his speech. To his choices to give the armband to the former protege of David Marraud and to appoint Ludovic Blas as vice-captain. “Ludo is a technical leader, he is a very important player for us on the pitchdecrypts Lafont, who is finishing his third season with the Yellows. I think that vice-captain role helped him. It forces him to respond to each match and it puts a lot of pressure on him, like in the Cup where he is ultra-efficient.“
Highly sought after, scrutinized by several clubs, Alban Lafont wants to win “a first trophy“Finally filling his wardrobe. It’s time for the present. See you on Saturday, more precisely. He doesn’t want to think about it too much. But he doesn’t make any secrets when he talks about the European Cup,”a competition that all players want to play“. A plus in the perspective of being a player selected by Didier Deschamps? “It could help me achieve this goalbut it’s also for me, for my development and my ambitionloose the player bought around 7.5 million euros. But that’s not what worries me right now. I’m focused on the end of the season.” And the ambition to bring Nantes back to the European stage.
– Jerome Fouquet