Five short minutes. Entering at the very end of the match, Jonathan Clauss did not walk the lawn of the Stade de France for long. Just enough time to touch two balls and participate in the victory of the Blues who turned the situation around in extremis to win against Côte d’Ivoire (2-1), Friday, March 25. To still benefit from his first selection, the new recruit savors his team’s lap of honor after the meeting, eyes wide open like a kid. ” It’s extraordinary “he repeats, shaking his head in disbelief.
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A few days earlier, arriving at the Blues training center in Clairefontaine, it was the same happy face who discovered the site. “A child, sorry, I don’t have the words”, smiled the RC Lens full-back. He is there, in the France group, with the big boys, and he can’t get over it. Most of his future teammates are younger than him, who is 29 years old. But he is still this kid who sees his dream come true and struggles to realize his chance. When most of Didier Deschamps’ men line up gifted courses, Jonathan Clauss displays an atypical CV.
False start and school of patience
The story however begins in the nails. The ball in his paws he barely knows how to walk, the club of his hometown at 6 years old, and very quickly the flagship team of his native Alsace: he joined RC Strasbourg at the end of childhood and did all his training there. . But at 18, when it comes to shifting into high gear, his club lets go: he is considered physically too fair, but above all mentally too tender. A little casual, and struggling to assimilate all the constraints of the professional world.
Back home in 2010, the landing is difficult. Football “then becomes really secondary”, he would say later. He thinks of putting away the crampons. But because he had to take care of himself, he joined the Pierrots-Vauban Sports Association in Strasbourg, a CFA2 club (now National 3), the fifth level in tricolor football. Amateur therefore, with odd jobs at the same time to inflate the portfolio. The rest is the time to grow, to mature. He crossed the border to play for a year in the German sixth division, returned to France at Raon-L’Étape, where his coach often had to retrain him because of his delays, and moved to US Avranches (National) in 2016, where his qualities finally set him apart.
Because Jonathan Clauss provides on the ground, a full-back playing the overactive wipers on his wing, capable of centering to the millimeter and scoring more often than in turn. His qualities earned him a first signing of a professional contract in Ligue 2 at US Quevilly-Rouen for the 2017-2018 season. At 24, the reward is late. And the school of patience is not over. His contract lasts only one year, and the club is relegated. Jonathan Clauss returns to Germany, in the second division, at Arminia Bielefeld.
an opportunity not to be missed
This time, rigor really becomes his line of conduct and his talent explodes, essential craftsman of the club’s rise in the Bundesliga for his second year across the Rhine. In the summer of 2020, it is finally the grail of Ligue 1: RC Lens recruits him for three years. The quest was long, but supported by his family, Jonathan Clauss is reaching the goal. In the monthly So Foothis mother Josiane summarizes: “Without going to church, we are however very religious. We feel that someone is protecting us in heaven. »
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The son signs himself before each entry into play, and does not deviate from his pre- and post-match ritual: a phone call to his parents. In Lens, he very quickly became the darling of the supporters, who called for a selection with the Blues even before Euro 2021. See his name circulating to join “the great French team”, as he says, threw him a little off balance last fall. A slight slump, quickly overcome. “I take things day by day, lightly, with a little humor”he swears then.
It prevents. His time has come, and a new pressure is here. His selection, “It’s not Jonathan’s party, it’s not his jubilee. He should not consider this as an end but as a step., warned Didier Deschamps. Now we have to make our place. Jonathan Clauss has a shot to play to sneak into the 23 who will be at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. Past the wonder, it’s now.
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Still waiting for broadcaster
Will the friendly match against South Africa in Lille this Tuesday be the last one broadcast by TF1 for a long time? The question remains pending a few days before the expiry of the contract which binds the Blues to the TF1 and M6 channels for the retransmission of their matches (excluding the World Cup and Euro). The call for tenders for the 2022-2028 period proved unsuccessful last fall. The procedure brought together offers of less than 3 million euros per match, well below the 3.5 million euros paid today. The French Football Federation hopes to reach at least this sum in the over-the-counter negotiations which have since opened. But the merger project by 2023 in which TF1 and M6 are engaged is blurring the cards, and the other candidates are not legion. The Blues will open the next Nations League against Denmark on June 3 at the Stade de France. But on what screen? Mystery.
