Warren Zaire-Emery, itinerary of a discreet gifted person who skips the steps

“If I were coach, I would call him”. His trainer Luis Enrique, who works with him every day at PSG, was rave about a week earlier. Didier Deschamps followed his advice by calling Warren Zaire-Emery for the first time with the France team, Thursday November 9. Accustomed to playing with players older than him since his childhood, the Parisian midfielder will experience the biggest upgrade possible, joining the Blues at just 17 years and 8 months. And if Didier Deschamps gives him playing time against Gibraltar (November 18) or Greece (November 21), he will become the youngest player to wear the jersey of the post-war France A team.

He “only” has 45 professional matches, but “evolves like a player who has already had a ten-year career”analyzes Hervé Guégan, coach in charge of individual sessions for PSG’s U17s and U19s, who coached Zaire-Emery when he was 14 and playing with… the U16s. “He is ahead in decision-making, in managing emotions… I am not a doctor, but I am convinced that everything is played out in his brain. The ground is flat, but it is as if he was on a mound, he sees everything with more height”adds Zizek Belkebla, one of his first trainers at FCM Aubervilliers.

It is for these qualities demonstrated at PSG that Didier Deschamps announced his name, all smiles, in the list for the November gathering. “If he continues like this, he is a serious candidate, with incredible maturity”, he said a month earlier, when the Parisian was then captain of the Espoirs for his first three selections last September-October. Having become an indisputable starter at PSG, Warren Zaire-Emery actually continued “like that”, with very high level performances punctuated by two goals and two assists over the last four matches. Performances that surprise no one among his trainers. “It’s hard to find fault with Warren. He is a well-bred, very thoughtful person, and on the ground, he is very intelligent, he has very great potential, a very great technical background. What he’s doing today isn’t necessarily a surprise.”summarizes Hervé Guégan.

Already comfortable with the ball at four and a half years old

Precocious, the young midfielder was already so when he started playing football, following in the footsteps of his dad who played for Red Star between 1996 and 1998. “He didn’t live far from the stadium in Aubervilliers, and his father was an educator at the club. He was under his father’s coattails, as Kylian Mbappé was with his at Bondyremembers Zizek Belkebla, his trainer who is also a Canal + consultant. He always had a ball in his hand, and at four and a half-five years old he was already driving it quickly. We let him play, even though we normally don’t register children before the age of six.”. At five years old, Warren Zaire-Emery therefore benefits from an exception to play with children aged six, then at seven years old, he invites himself to the training of those aged nine.

“It was already almost too easy for him. The children asked me each time why I was bringing the little one back, and I told them to be quiet, go play, and watch. He was small and thin, was getting stamped , but he did not flinch, and was not afraid.”

Zizek Belkebla, trainer of Warren Zaire-Emery in Aubervilliers

at franceinfo: sport

Quickly, the trainer realizes that he has a phenomenon before his eyes. “He had a gift. We didn’t do much, we just helped him a little. But at eight years old, we already see that we have reached the end of things with Aubervilliers, we believe that we can no longer make him progress as we should, so we suggest to a friend from PSG to come and see him. He passed the detections easily”, remembers Zizek Belkebla. Within the Parisian club, the young Warren is once again outclassed. “It’s rare at PSG, because we believe that the boys must play with their age category, for their development, to gain confidence, then it’s consistent because the groups are of very good levels. But for him, the steps were already simple to take.” explains Abdou Fall, his U10 trainer, now assistant coach of the U19s at Stade de Reims.

“He was far above the others, and everyone knew it”

Under the Parisian jersey, the status of Warren Zaire-Emery changes, and no one wonders why the “little one” is playing with the older players. “His teammates didn’t see him like the little kid, because he was way above the others, and everyone knew it”, continues Abdou Fall. The player stands out, the educators talk about him, but the midfielder keeps his head on his shoulders. “He came to training with great pleasure, and his family is great because they have always supported him without putting pressure on him. He plays football to have fun”says the trainer, who remained close to the Zaire-Emery clan.

And if he is described as a discreet boy, his talent is still starting to make noise within the Parisian training center. “I’ve been coaching for a few years, and I’ve never seen a player of that age at that level. When he doesn’t play, you realize that the team doesn’t have the same level”, confides Hervé Guégan, while PSG has still trained players like Adrien Rabiot, Presnel Kimpembe and Kingsley Coman in recent years. Aware of his talent, the Parisian Titi does not rest on his achievements. “He is a boy who is a hard worker, a perfectionist. However, this is not what generally comes out in young boys who know they have talent“, assures Abdou Fall.

When it’s time to knock on the door of the professional squad, Warren Zaire-Emery is once again leapfrogging, and setting records for precocity. He played his first minutes in Ligue 1 at 16 years and 151 days old, becoming the youngest player to play an official match in the PSG jersey. Christophe Galtier gives him playing time little by little, without exposing him too much, before his successor, Luis Enrique, makes him an indisputable starter this season. Against AC Milan in the first leg of the Champions League, he became the youngest player in the history of Paris Saint-Germain to already have 20 starts, at just 17 years and 231 days old.

Having become the darling of supporters, the discreet Warren Zaire-Emery is opening up more and more. “Ten years ago, I would not have put a euro on the fact that he took the megaphone to sing with the stands as he did after the match against Marseille,” laughs Abdou Fall. Ephemeral captain of the Bleuets, where Thierry Henry pushed him to assert himself a little more, the Parisian will now have to find a place in Bleu. Certainly not as a locker room leader to begin with, but perhaps quickly as a technical leader in midfield, surrounded by older players… as always.