Amel Majri is the first French football international to come accompanied by her baby during a gathering of Les Bleues. A welcome that has become the norm in the French handball team since the beginning of the 2000s.
Bringing your children to international gatherings has become a habit for their American counterparts. For the players of the French football team, the presence of a baby by their side in Clairefontaine, since Monday April 3, is a novelty. First international in activity to have become a mother, Amel Majri is now accompanied by her nine-month-old daughter. A small welcome revolution, but which comes very late in comparison with what is done in the French handball team.
It makes you wonder who Amel Majri or her teammates are the happiest. Sakina Karchaoui evokes a “breath of fresh air” and Kenza Dali ensures that she is “a bit of a nanny” of little Maryam, Clairefontaine’s new mascot. If Corinne Deacon had opened the door, offering goalkeeper Manon Heil to come accompanied by her son during the February rally, which she had refused, Amel Majri seized the opportunity renewed by the new staff of Les Bleues. “It is essential to give structure to players who have young childrensaid Hervé Renard at a press conference. Amel has a 9-month-old daughter, it is difficult for a mother to leave her very young child at home, even if it is her job […] It will not harm the functioning of the group and psychologically it is of paramount importance“.
The youngest resident of Clairefontaine therefore discovered the national technical center on Monday, alongside her nanny. A mode of care whose costs are financed by the French Football Federation. “The return to selection has already given me a lot of emotions, but I would never have imagined living it with my daughter.says Amel Majri in The Teamafter these first days of gathering […] I can juggle my workouts, girl. I share a lot of moments with her in every free time I have. Today she crawled forward for the first time. The nanny accompanies me, and that allows me to focus only on football”.
Handball, a precursor for twenty years
If Amel Majri and the Bleues du foot discover the presence of a baby in selection, this reception of children has become the norm, and has been for more than 20 years, among the Bleues du hand. “I remember the preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games with three mothers in the workforce, and the presence of their childrensays Olivier Krumbholz, the coach Olympic champion and double world champion in particular with the tricolor handballeuses. We relied on the general manager and the head of delegation, who were free during training, and who therefore took care of the children.. Players now sometimes come with nannies, their partners or grandparents, who rent accommodation nearby.“and it happened that the federation helps financially for this”, he assures.
“Everyone must find the right balance between the well-being of the child, the mother, the collectiveexplains Nodjialem Myaro, former French international and president of the Women’s Handball League. Recovery is important, sleep is important, you just have to put spaces for it and respect them, there is a time for everything, and the players are professional enough to make allowances.”. Children are therefore not necessarily welcome during training and video sessions.“but there is no standard organizational model, emphasizes Olivier Krumbholz. You have to have some form of flexibility in the schedule to allow them to see their children. We sometimes eat with them, and for the children, it’s like Disneyland, they have 20 tatas who try to play with them and cuddle them”.
In the coach’s opinion, players who have become mothers, like goalkeeper Cléopâtre Darleux, are generally driving forces in a group : “A woman who has experienced childbirth is forced to make efforts to come back, especially on her physique, and these are girls who have enormous ambition and enormous determination”. Nodjialem Myaro, who became pregnant after her international career but who rubbed shoulders with children in the selection, confirms: “I am convinced that it is because a player will be balanced in all areas of her life that she will be able to perform. Sometimes there is guilt about going away for so long, and those who manage to manage it can only sublimate themselves”.
“Amel will become a reference”
As in handball, the Bleues du foot and their coach now hope that the presence of children will become generalized. “Why not have four or five toddlers with us in the future? asked Hervé Renard at a press conference. “Amel was wondering how her return would go, if she would be allowed to come with her daughter, especially since she is breastfeeding. Now that it’s acquired, it’s something big and it will pave the way for others. When you don’t have a model, it’s complicated to take the plunge, and Amel will become a reference for many”, assures Jessica Houara-D’Hommeaux, former player of the Bleues, and now consultant for Canal +, for whom she co-directed the documentary “Baby Foot, nine months in the life of Amel Majri” (available on MyCanal). She herself would have liked to have had more confidence during her international career.
“I had wanted to become a mother for a long time, but I did not dare during my career. If I had had a model player who came to the selection with her child, of course that would have changed the situation. I think that I would have had my children during my career, and maybe I would have hung up my boots later.”
Jessica Houara-D’Hommeaux, former internationalat franceinfo: sport
Sociologist and Deputy Vice-President of the French Handball Federation, Béatrice Barbusse is delighted to “the entry into the normality of football”but add a nuance: “I will be happy when I see this discourse on the men’s side, when these arrangements will be allowed to them. I do not have the feeling that the boys are as demanding as the girls, and that bothers me, because we make pass the image that raising children is a woman’s story, and that the guys can do the work without worrying about who takes care of them or who feeds them”. On this point, progress remains to be made, especially in rugby, where Grenoble’s Timoci Nagusa had been the target of criticism and questions when he chose to take advantage of his 28-day paternity leave in 2021.