how Laval became the driving force behind the French team on its path to the World Cup

The French futsal team largely owes its first World Cup qualification in its history to its Laval sector, which provides a third of its workforce.

Last match of the year for the Blues. Raphaël Reynaud’s players travel to Germany, Wednesday December 20, as part of the last day of the World Cup qualifiers, which will take place from September 14 to October 6, 2024, in Uzbekistan. A match where victory will allow progression in the FIFA rankings but which will count “for butter”, says the coach, in the race for qualification.

By beating Slovakia, 7-1, last Thursday, the Tricolores have, in fact, already won their ticket for the World Cup, the very first in their history, in Laval (Mayenne). A success celebrated almost at home since five of the 15 players of the French team play, in the championship, under the colors of Étoile Lavalloise. This year, the Mayenne club has become the leading supplier of French internationals ahead of Nantes métropole futsal (three players) and Toulouse métropole football club (three players).

Nothing surprising given the 2022-2023 season carried out by the Laval team. Authors of a cup-championship double, achieved by only three teams before them, the “Stellistes”, as they are called, largely dominated the French championship. They are on course to do the same this year, since they have not recorded a defeat in 11 matches and are currently leaders of D1 with ten points ahead of the runner-up, Toulouse. “We need locomotives like Laval, with players who played in the Champions League against Benfica and FC Barcelona and who have high-level experience.”, estimates the Tricolores coach. But when we look back at the history of the club, it’s difficult to imagine it with the largest contingent of French internationals in 2023.

A recent arrival in the first division

Two years ago, Étoile Lavalloise, this club created in 2006, had just arrived in D1, a little helped by destiny. Second in D2 and therefore not promoted, the Mayenne team owes its integration into the elite to the administrative demotions of the ACCS Asnières-Villeneuve-la-Garenne 92 and Garges Djibson clubs. In its ranks, only one international tricolor, the native son, Louis Marquet.

“That year, we finished sixth and we played to maintain, remembers the goalkeeper and captain of the Stellistes. Mbut from mid-season, the club is strengthening with the arrival of Anas and Bilal Bakkali, two Moroccan internationals”. In the following transfer window, two members of the France team joined Étoile: Abdessamad Mohammed and Souheil Mouhoudine. Two players playing at ACCS before the club was excluded from the national championships for financial problems.

“The managers had the intelligence to bring together players who had already excelled together and who got along well. This is what meant that from our first year in the Laval jersey, we succeeded.” comments the captain of the Blues, Abdessamad Mohammed. For the pivot, the Mayenne club was only missing ““only a combination of good players to change dimension, because the club had already worked hard to put a structure in place.”

A substantial budget and ideal training conditions

A term that the founder of the club, Julien Moreau, likes to use. According to him, the success of the team is, in fact, due to “a development plan built over many years” and inspired by the best that could be done in futsal. “In 2007, I went to Charleroi (Belgium), a club which had won the Champions League in 2005 and whose city had similarities with Laval”, explains the person concerned, who also admits to being inspired by Stade Lavallois or even AS Monaco, with whom the Laval star “has connections”.

A “solid project” who, in the summer of 2022, convinced Abdessamad Mohammed, 69 goals in 91 caps with the France team, to join Mayenne. “It’s a club that works very well, is healthy and takes care of the well-being of its players.”, he argued. The club also put “the means”, both human and financial. With a budget which gradually increased from 600,000 euros in 2021 to one million in 2022, then 1.6 million euros in 2023, the Mayenne club today has the largest budget in the French championship.

The president of the club, Julien Moreau, believes that it is also the arrival of new sports equipment in 2021, the Espace Mayenne, which has made it possible to attract certain players. “Playing in front of 3,600 people is quite rare in Europe,” he wants to emphasize.

The club’s recent sporting performances have also made it possible to attract new profiles. This summer, it was Nelson Lutin and Ouassini Guirio who settled in Laval to bring the number of French internationals in the Mayenne prefecture to five.

A good dynamic which makes the French team happy. “Futsal requires a lot of automatisms and that’s the hardest thing to build. We make it easier by playing together for a long time for some”confides Abdessamad Mohammed. Against Slovakia, the pivot scored the first goal of the match following an assist from his Laval teammate, Souheil Mouhoudine. Each match played between now and September 14 and the start of the World Cup, starting on Wednesday against Germany, will allow these automatisms to be perfected.