unemployed professional footballers talk about their off-season internship to find a club

From the GPS sensors to the staff, it feels like a real football club. However, it is an off-season internship for the players present on the lawn. Matthieu Dossevi, a very experienced player who passed through Toulouse, Valenciennes and Metz in particular, is now unemployed, but he wants to prove that he still has the legs. “The people who followed me, who might have had doubts, could see that I was still competitive and that I still had the possibility of bringing a grouphe confides. We’ll see what it brings us during the transfer window.”

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Despite his nearly 400 professional matches at the age of 34, finding himself in this internship is not a shame for him. “It’s part of the job, that’s how it isadmits the player. There are ups and downs, and then my career is rather behind me so I take it with philosophy. There is no ego at all, we are there, we work and we have fun.”

The participants in the camp are unemployed for lots of different reasons: repeated injuries, club in financial difficulty or extra-sporting difficulties. Some do not yet have a lead, unlike Ihsan Sacko, 24, considered very promising. He did not win at OGC Nice and finds himself without a contract this summer.

“It allowed me to have visibility, to be able to project myself on certain proposals thanks to matches. Yes, thanks to that, I have proposals and I will make my choices in the coming days.”

Ihsan Sacko, professional footballer

at franceinfo

Some of his comrades are not so lucky. They are still pending. “They’re all on their phones there, watching the latest callssmiles Ihsan Sacko. From the first days, there were already two guards who left. Then, at the end of the internship, it was linked. The last three days, at least three or four have left.”

Throughout the course, the players are filmed, photographed from all angles. The UNFP, the union of professional players, recruited a former player in retraining only to take care of social networks. “We have seen today that the clubs are moving less and lesssays Barkley Miguel-Panzo. Everyone has their cell phone, their tablet and today, that’s kind of the purpose of social networks.”

“The goal is to be able to highlight the players, to bring this recruiter, this club, this sporting director to come on the field and really see with his own eyes.”

Barkley Miguel-Panzo, Social Media Manager

at franceinfo

And it’s very effective. Mid-June they were 22, ten of them have already found a new contract. “It’s true that this year, compared to other years, we had a lot of departureswelcomes the course director, Pascal Bollini. The proof is that we have the last match left, we only have 15 outfield players. And then, I’m sure, of the 15 players I have left, there are plenty who will find [un club]. I have no doubt.”

In the past, some have bounced back very well, such as Arnaud Souquet or Akim Zedadka.