Les Bleues in “Katoto dependence” before facing Brazil in the quarter-finals

Top scorer in the Olympic tournament, Marie-Antoinette Katoto scored five of the six French goals in the group stage. She will be particularly scrutinized in Nantes on Saturday.

Never has a Frenchwoman scored so much in a major competition. Marie-Antoinette Katoto is emerging as the number one asset of the Bleues before a rather affordable quarter-final against Brazil in Nantes, Saturday August 3 (at 9 p.m., live on France Télévisions and france.tv).

Leading the scorers’ rankings at these Olympic Games with five goals in three matches, the Paris Saint-Germain centre-forward is finally having the great tournament she was promised.

Not selected by Corinne Diacre at the 2019 World Cup, victim of a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee at Euro 2022 and still convalescing during the 2023 World Cup, “MAK” can finally express himself at the forefront of the French attack. “Because of her efficiency, she takes others with her”praised Hervé Renard after a new double scored against New Zealand on Wednesday (2-1). Given the mixed performances of the French players during the first round, the coach knows that his adventure with the selection could have ended earlier without his attacker.

“That’s it, we are in Katoto dependency”admitted Amandine Henry, with the armband on her biceps and qualification in her pocket. Among the other Bleues, only Kenza Dali has already found the back of the net during this first Olympic week. “They don’t want to score”Marie-Antoinette Katoto joked with an embarrassed smile, as she often does when facing journalists.

On the eve of the French women’s entry into the competition, she already displayed her confidence while ensuring that she had not “has been preparing this for a long time”. “I had a little more time for myself. The staff really adapted to me. Over the previous years, I think that [le manque d’adaptation] made me miss some preparations, and afterwards, it didn’t work”she said from the Tola-Vologe training center in Lyon.

“She realized from the first day that this was a very important tournament. With all the work she has done, the efforts she has made and which have been seen, I think she will have a great competition.”predicted Hervé Renard, sitting next to her. It is clear that he was right.

Arrested for fourteen months until last September, the Colombes native gained momentum over the course of the season. “With a size like his [1,77 m, 66 kg]it’s not easy to get back into the rhythm. When she got injured, she was at an extraordinary level. You had to be patient.”recalled Wendie Renard. Especially since the staff’s attempts to form an offensive duo with Eugénie Le Sommer quickly showed their limits in the spring.

With the physical problems of the Lyonnaise this summer, Marie-Antoinette Katoto (44 selections, 35 goals) assumed her responsibilities “without feeling any more pressure than that.” Formidable in finishing, she never shies away from doing the dirty work and proves to be valuable with her deflection game. There is perhaps one last point of improvement: “Leadership is not something that is innate in me. I try to work on it day after day. I can still make efforts on that, because I think it would be good for the group and for myself.”.

“Marie is a discreet person who doesn’t talk much but who, when she does, has weight in her words.”

Herve Renard

at a press conference before the Olympics

While she can be blamed for a huge miss against Canada that would have allowed Les Bleues to win instead of taking the final blow in quick succession (1-2), or her culpable passivity on the New Zealand equalizer (2-1), Marie-Antoinette Katoto asserts herself, at 25, as the providential woman who can lead France to its first Olympic medal. A quest that requires success against the Seleçao, the opponent against whom she honored her first international cap.