Women’s D1: Issy is… Paris

It is not only because their meeting against PSG (this Saturday, 4:30 p.m., at Clairefontaine) will be broadcast live on Canal + Sport that the Chouettes of the GPSO 92 Issy will be motivated. Many of them will indeed be carried by the mere fact of finding a club in which they grew up. Seven players in the squad have worn the colors of PSG at one point or another in their careers, left side Nonna Debonne in the lead, she who spent ten years there and wore the jersey 187 times until her departure in 2014 In the stands also, the president Christine Aubère and the sports director Alexandre Barbier will take a special look at their opponent of the day. The first began her career there in D1, at the age of 15, in 1985, before leaving in 2002. The second, rubbed shoulders on the field with the generation of Abriel, Paisley, Ducrocq, aged 9 and 19.

The Altoséquanais club, which owes the third accession in the elite in its recent history after those of 2012 and 2014, to its excellent run in D2 last season, does not make the meeting against Paris a gala match. The objective of the GPSO 92, currently tenth, remains the maintenance. For this, he intends to ride on the momentum given by his first two successes of the season, against Bordeaux (3-1) then at Soyaux (1-0) on the last day.

But facing PSG can not really be a date like any other for a club with so many former Parisians. An assumed presence. “The idea for us is to be the springboard for clubs like PSG. Either to allow young players to bounce back. Either so that players at the end of their careers like Nonna Debonne or Ella Kaabachi, become the elite of our region, ”underlines Christine Aubère, who started playing football at 12 in Paris. As for the meeting against Paris, she sees it as “a pride to reach this level and the culmination of long years of work”. And, on a personal level, as a former Parisian, she recognizes that “it’s always a little emotional” but that she will be “an Owl” this Saturday.

This idea of ​​a “springboard” to explain the large number of ex-Parisiennes also comes up in Alexandre Barbier’s speech. “Issy gives the opportunity to young players who want playing time to develop at the highest level,” explains the club’s new sporting director. And it is true that for that the geographical proximity with the PSG is an asset. The catwalk happens naturally and the idea is that it is perpetuated. But it’s the same with Paris FC or clubs that have a higher budget, such as Lyon and a bloated workforce where places are expensive. We say to young players: We, Issy, we exist, we are there, we can give you playing time to allow you to get seasoned. “

Facing PSG, Nonna Debonne has already done it once. It was in 2014, just after his arrival in Issy. The defender even remembers having launched “Go Blue!” “By mistake at the time of encouraging his new partners, all dressed in red …” Even on the first touches, I wondered why the Blue did not stand out. I didn’t know who to give the ball to! She remembers, laughing. This Saturday, no question of having the slightest doubt. Facing Paris, the club of which she was a younger fan, is also an opportunity for her to discuss the evolution of the club in the capital marked by the arrival of Qatar. She is not jealous of what the Parisians win today, but she has not necessarily lived well her last two seasons in the jersey of PSG. “French women were too expensive for them,” she recalls. We brought in foreigners younger than me. And since they had been made to leave their country, they had to be made to play at all costs. As a result, some played injured and I stayed on the bench. The pleasure, the taste for effort are gone. “