Women’s Euro 2022 – Melvine Malard, “a joker” who could end up replacing Marie-Antoinette Katoto – Eurosport FR

From our special correspondent in Rotherham, The Red Mat Theory is going to pass one hell of a crash test. If Melvine Malard tackles this color in her hair, it’s only because she hopes the mojo hasn’t left her. “I’m not superstitious, but I always think positive. I finished top scorer at Euro U19 having red pigtails. So I said to myself: ‘Now I’m always going to play in red pigtails’. The last times, I tried blond pigtails and I didn’t score a goal”, she laughed, as always, with Onze Mondial last April. Euro 2022 Mothers and international players: Iceland, exception that proves the rule5 HOURS AGOSo, in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, base camp of the Blue, we notice it more easily. Even without that, Melvine Malard remains apart, with her airy gait and her perpetual smile. She embodies, like her best friend Selma Bacha, the new generation from Lyon, the one called to take power at Les Bleues in the years to come. In the immediate future, Corinne Deacon seems to have opted for the Ouleymata Sarr option against Iceland (9 p.m.). Immediately. Because with Malard, you can’t swear to anything, as her journey to the heights happened at supersonic speed, just like the player she is. come back to this year 2014 when everything changed. After becoming passionate about football on her island of Reunion, becoming captain of a boys’ team as a central defender, she finally participated in the National U15 Cup with her team from Saint-Denis. Katoto’s replacement? “Deacon wanted to drown the fish but…”Spotted by Bompastor”At this tournament, there is Sonia Bompastor, OL youth manager, she rewinded for OL Play in 2021. I scored a lot of goals , I finished top scorer. She came to see me to get in touch with my parents. A week later, when returning to Reunion, my mother received a phone call asking me to come to OL “I have two months to think. I made the decision in two days (laughs). I said to myself ‘Olympique Lyonnais, there’s Wendie Renard there…’ Yes, of course, yes. I’m 14, I didn’t ask myself any questions.” At the OL academy, she impresses with the liveliness of her support, her speed, her versatility and her freshness. Quickly, a pro contract is offered to her and it is in the middle of an XXL workforce that she tries to nibble on playing time. Brood by Wendie Renard, her lifelong idol who has become her friend, she grows at her own pace, continuing to string together goals with disconcerting ease in the youth categories.Melvine Malard and Wendie Renard in the OLC jerseyCredit: ImagoIt is logical that Gilles Eyquem, U19 coach, calls on her for the Euro U19 in 2019 The attacker, with red braids therefore, finished European champion and top scorer in the competition (4 goals). But her potential is still limited, especially at the finish, and OL have chosen to lend her to Fleury. Malard’s irresistible rise to the pros can begin. when Ada Hegerberg and Eugénie Le Sommer are missing, the former Lyonnais coach does not bother: Malard’s hour has come. Against Juventus, in C1, she scored in the first leg. Also on the way back. Same price against Brondby. For her, as for OL, it is confirmation that she is made of a different wood. This season was one of an irresistible rise in power under the orders of… Sonia Bompastor. Destiny again. With 17 goals on the clock and crazy activity in her left lane where her agreement with Selma Bacha drove European defenses crazy, she quickly became obvious for Corinne Deacon. Selected in September 2020, she is slow to find the net in selection but unlocks herself against Kazakhstan in October 2021 with a double.Melvine Malard against ItalyCredit: Getty Images”Melvine is a young player who had not yet found the way to the net with us, praised her then the coach of the Blues, seduced by her profile. She performs well in club and on a daily basis, she shows a lot of things. She shows a lot of desire, it is really an example for our young people. They really need to follow this example, because Melvine is a very conscientious person, and I am happy for her because she is finally rewarded for her efforts”. Her progress has been amazing “The biggest margin for progress, I think it’s Melvine, confirms Gilles Eyquem, also under the spell of the evolution of the French striker. I find her extraordinary with the France team. I think her progress has been amazing, in her self-confidence, in her ability to make a difference in front of goal. Her register has evolved enormously. Before she was a little more airheaded, a little less killer, with periods of absence. She is more regular in her game, in her involvement”. for the rest of the Euro. “I talk a lot with her, we talk a lot about football, she explained to us before the start of the competition. In training, she advises me a lot. Me, I have this problem of hesitation when I arrive in face-to-face with the goalkeeper. Marie is something she had before and that she manages very well now. That’s why she is the top scorer, that she manages to score difficult goals, so she gives me a lot of advice.” Facing Iceland, it is possibly as a supersub that she is expected. “Each time she entered, she brought her percussion qualities but she is also able to keep the ball with her back to goal, Wendie Renard rightly analyzed on Sunday. She is an instinctive player, we did not no need to talk to her, she will play with her qualities”. Before hoping for a little more? It was ultimately Gilles Eyquem who had planned everything. His former coach in U19, when returning to Corinne Deacon’s list, had these words which he hopes are premonitory for his former protege: “For me, it’s much more than a joker”.With Vincent ROUSSELEuro 202216 Consecutive victories: The crazy series of Les Bleues scrutinized13 HOURS AGOEuro 2022Deacon, still as mysterious: “I’m going to put Wendie in front”18 HOURS AGO