in Clairefontaine, a week of cohabitation between two selections in search of Olympic cohesion

The two Olympic football teams stayed together in Clairefontaine this week. They spent several moments together around the castle, left at the disposal of Hervé Renard’s players by Thierry Henry’s U23s.

It’s the end of the Olympic camp. The studious cohabitation, between physical effort tests and training under the blazing sun, ends on Friday, June 28 in Clairefontaine. Since the beginning of the week, the two Olympic football teams have been gathered for the start of preparation for the Games. Alongside his counterpart in charge of the Bleuets, Thierry Henry, the coach of the women’s team Hervé Renard rightly recalled, on Monday, the importance of creating cohesion.

“If we look forward to August 10 [date de la finale du tournoi olympique féminin], it will be 48 days. It’s a long time, but we want to be together that long. The word cohesion will be part of the introductory meeting. The state of mind and cohesion, added to talent, is what allows you to win a tournament. If we don’t have these three ingredients, we can’t hope for anything.” hammered the coach as a regular, before his 11th international competition at the head of a nation.

For him, the task will nevertheless be simpler, with for the moment a group of 26 players whose only two “new items” compared to the double confrontation against England last month are the returns of Eugénie Le Sommer and Griedge Mbock. For his part, Thierry Henry was forced by the regulations and the numerous refusals of clubs to release their players when composing his Olympic pre-list. The idea of ​​gathering early, from June 16, was therefore to “simply create a group”.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any experience. All the teams that will arrive for the tournament have had to go through qualifications. We don’t have the time and we need it. At some point, to get something, you have to dream, you have to have a plan, even if it’s not easy to put in place,” recalled the 1998 world champion, deprived of many of his executives including Lucas Chevalier, Leny Yoro (Losc) and Bradley Barcola (PSG).

To ignite this Olympic flame in people’s heads, the two staff organized time together during this week of cohabitation in Yvelines. Players thus gathered on Tuesday to watch the France-Poland of the Euro together (1-1) then have a barbecue in the garden of the castle, left free by the Espoirs upon the arrival of the internationals (affected by Covid , Selma Bacha only arrived on Tuesday evening).

“We were able to talk and it’s going very well. Not necessarily talking about the Games”explained Toulouse goalkeeper Guillaume Restes on Wednesday, promising to support his new colleagues during their next matches. “There were quite a few Lyonnais at my table and we talked about it, as we went to the same schools. We shared our experiences a bit and realised that we had the same football education. It was nice to see these similarities,” added Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, born in Lyon and sitting next to Alexandre Lacazette and Rayan Cherki the day before.

“The Olympics means representing Team France. We have this week together to meet, talk, learn. It’s for everyone, not just football. Trying to bring home a medal for the nation is pretty important. I’ve missed hours of sleep to watch great moments at the Olympics. To be part of it is amazing,” commented Thierry Henry on Monday. After the afternoon training, the U23s will be released for the weekend, to then head to Bayonne where they will do a training camp.

They will face Paraguay on July 4, before returning three days later to their Olympic base camp in Aix-en-Provence for two new friendlies (Dominican Republic, Japan). The French will remain in Clairefontaine until July 10 – when they will have two qualifying matches for Euro 2025 against Sweden in Dijon on the 12th and in Cork against Ireland on the 16th – to then reach the district of Gerland in Lyon on the 19th in preparation for the start of the Games.