Support is growing around Wendie Renard, as is criticism of the management of the French women’s team. After Morroni and Mbock, it’s Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor’s turn to support her defender and captain. “Wendie is legitimate because she is a professional, competitive, committed to the blue jersey. It’s a very difficult decision for her. She was very brave. It’s been hard to bear for a while,” Bompastor said.
By announcing her withdrawal from Les Bleues five months before the World Cup, “Wendie is getting into trouble. But she does it for the collective good and for the French team, “she added after OL’s victory over Bordeaux (3-0) in the French league, of which Lyon are leaders.
“We have to make sure we listen to the players. Since the 2019 World Cup (defeat in the quarter-finals of Les Bleues), we have not been able to ride the right wave. A lot of things should have been resolved before that rant from Wendie. Others have already expressed themselves,” recalled the technician, without naming coach Corinne Deacon, whose management was hidden by Renard, as well as by Kadidiatou Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, who have also put their international careers between parentheses.
Sonia Bompastor also evokes “points of dissatisfaction with the championship”. “Last year, OL’s victory in the Champions League was the tree that hid the forest. For a while now, I have been warning about the competition that is being organized in Spain, Italy or England. At some point, we won’t be able to follow. It takes a collective reaction, clubs, federation and together,” she continued.
Captain Wendie Renard explained Sunday about her withdrawal from Les Bleues. “It’s complicated to really say things, because these are locker room things, you need more requirements, the slider must go up, you need more work, it’s a staff, it’s a whole, necessarily it’s the coach who drives, so her name will come back, but it’s a whole”, she described on TF1. Also questioned by RMC, the player has still not specifically targeted coach Corinne Deacon. But she puts forward “purely sporting” reasons, of “quality to be able to evolve”. “We missed a turn after the 2019 World Cup, there is a momentum that is broken,” Renard explains, without saying more about the methods she disputes.
The players “don’t want to waste any more time. There is still time to see how to organize in order to be a strong nation at the World Cup”, she concluded, believing the tricolor generation capable of “compete for a title”.
For his part, Bordeaux coach Patrice Lair, who led Lyon and Paris SG, shared Bompastor’s observation. “We’re not moving any further. OL have done their job by winning a lot of trophies but we have to be more ambitious in terms of selection. I understand their reaction because they want to win, ”he explained, without sparing the management of Deacon.
“There are egos, big personalities, but in this coaching job, it’s complicated if you’re not able to manage that”, stings the technician, already evoking the hypothesis of a future in selection. “I’ve been told about it for ten years. It never happened. I am coming to the end of my contract with Bordeaux where I want to continue, because we are progressing. But, if you are offered the job, it’s hard to refuse. But there are people who are there to make decisions, ”he said, two days before a Federation executive committee which must consider the issue. “But I only want one thing: that the French team wins. »
