when the PSG training center opens to girls and introduces boys to diversity

Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Grace Geyoro, Laurina Fazer… PSG, which faces Manchester United for the return match of the second qualifying round of the Champions League on Wednesday October 18, trained great players. But until this year, the capital club did not have an approved training center for girls. Since the start of the school year, like five other D1 Arkema clubs, PSG has reached a milestone, with the first approvals granted by the FFF and the Ministry of Sports for women’s training centers. The young PSG players now rub shoulders with their male counterparts, within the Ooredoo training center in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines), the former headquarters of the professionals who moved to the PSG Campus in Poissy (Yvelines). In January, the two training centers (boys and girls) will in turn leave Saint-Germain to join the Campus.

“The infrastructure is incredible, we are treated like professionals. We have magnificent terrain and plenty to work on”enthuses Sofia Djoubri, 15, who trained that same morning on the pitch where Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and even Leo Messi walked a few months ago. “In addition to the fields and the weight room, where there are very high performance machines, we also benefit from the equipment that was there for the men’s team, with cameras that film all the matches and training for example , and we recruited a video analyst to analyze all of this”, explains Sabrina Delannoy, former PSG player and deputy sports director of the training center, who experienced a time when there was only the France center in Clairefontaine to train players at the high level. Exit sport-studies, schooling and accommodation in Mesnil-Saint-Denis (Yvelines), 28 km away for Parisians.

A strong staff to get closer to the conditions of the first team

By requesting approval, PSG stepped on the accelerator. “When you have ambitions like Paris Saint-Germain, it was naturalsays Sabrina Delannoy. Honestly, in the specifications, we already met 80% of the conditions. We were already in good conditions with sport-studies, but here we have taken another step.” Sonia Haziraj, who has the BEFF (football coach trainer certificate), was recruited as a new technical director, a doctor hired, and the number of players increased from 20 to 34. With PSG, Lyon, Fleury , Paris FC, Montpellier and Bordeaux have all obtained approval for a women’s training center, made possible thanks to the women’s football development plan unveiled in April 2023.

At the Ooredoo center, young Parisians share the same facilities (fields, canteen, etc.) as the first team players. “We can see how to position ourselves in relation to them, and what we need to do to progress.rejoices Alyssa Fernandes, goalkeeper of the U19 team. “If the pro staff needs a player, we just have to go get her, she’s not far away”adds Sabrina Delannoy. “Being based here, with only PSG people, we really feel like PSG players”continues Alyssa Fernandes. “It’s stricter than it was at sports studies, there are more rules. The days are busier, with more classes and training than before, but we’re at PSG, so we has an image that we must respect“, adds Naolia Traoré, midfielder.

Diversity encouraged but still shy

Due to a lack of space at Camp des Loges, where the boys are housed, the 31 internal players are housed a ten-minute drive from the training grounds, but all will meet in Poissy in the same building dedicated to training. We must therefore try to make the women’s and men’s sections coexist, while the boys have always been accustomed to single-sex training centers. “It hasn’t changed our daily lives, but it brings us closer to real life. They are footballers, they are there to play the same sport as us, with the same objectives. But for the moment, we don’t don’t mix too much. In the evening we have dinner together, but we stay with our groups of friends”, admits Noah Cousin, U17 goalkeeper. “We are still in a phase of modesty”confirms Sabrina Delannoy.

When settling into class, girls and boys keep their distance. “Overall, the girls have been well integrated, but we see that there are clans, with the girls on one side of the room, and the boys on the other, observes Eddy Kebli, professor of eco-law and head teacher of the STMG final year. We did group work on a business creation project, and the girls got together. Overall, they are more studious and more invested in class, so I am going to put a class plan together to mix them up and create group synergy.”.

To try to bring them a little closer together, PSG also organizes cohesion activities, such as an outing to the Eiffel Tower at the start of the season, or mixed eloquence workshops, since the second year high school students will participate in a speaking competition. eloquence between training centers at the end of the season. That evening, they participate in their second workshop. “Apparently we are going to be mixed with the girls in pairs, I don’t know who had this idea”, we whisper from the boys’ side. But as the session progresses, the apprehension disappears, and the young footballers are encouraged to discuss and ask each other questions. With the presence of girls, while the young people are encouraged to choose topics for debate, the theme of women’s football is the most mentioned, and the boys are encouraged to argue their positions: for or against diversity in training centers? Can female players be better than male players? Is it normal that the boys at the center are paid and not the girls?

While boys at the training center can benefit from aspiring or trainee contracts, which provide them with remuneration during training, these arrangements do not yet exist for girls. “They have a training agreement and the federation works to align the conditions and statuses of girls and boys”, explains Sabrina Delannoy. And if the players are not currently paid, the club sees the opening of the training center as a way to secure their future. “It has happened that we have trained players who then left for other clubs. With the approval, this will allow us to receive training compensation in this case. It enhances the work of our teams”continues the deputy sports director.

With 34 players aged 15 to 19, the PSG women’s team currently only has one team competing in the official championship, in the national U19. The players not selected for these matches regularly play friendly matches, but PSG plans in the future to open its center to more players to create a reserve team which could be engaged in D3.