She is a real star on social networks. Installed in the cages of PSG since 2021, Barbora Votikova exports his influence and his overflowing energy and dreams, like him, of a Champions League final. Pfor the semi-final go to Lyon, dSunday April 24, “Bara” (his nickname) will carry not only his pair of gloves and his shin guards, but perhaps also a small camera, his other work tool. An accessory that she does not hesitate to draw after some significant successes. Her goal: to immortalize the joy of her teammates and share it.
“In reality, I don’t film that much” at the club, smiles the 25-year-old Czech, who arrived at PSG at the end of summer 2021. “I go to film after the matches when we are all very happy, but I don’t always bring my camera in our daily life”, she told AFP. On her Youtube channel, her 490,000 subscribers certainly have access to a few pictures of the locker room, but the subjects covered are more often those of a normal girl: sometimes light, such as childhood, travel, confinement, the discovery of Paris, sometimes deeper, like when she talks about her coming out at the end of 2019.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 16: there’s always been football and social media.” Articulating these two passions “has now become very natural”, explains the one who also has nearly 530,000 subscribers on Instagram, more than her French teammates Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Kadidiatou Diani and Grace Geyoro combined. In Prague, when she returns to the country, it is difficult for the Czech international (36 caps) to walk around without being arrested for a few selfies with his fans. “It’s the power of social media. It’s like people know you”explains the young guardian, also regularly invited on TV sets.
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In Paris, on the other hand, it has not “all this attention”. This is also explained because for the time being she is confined to videos in her mother tongue. Time to “adapting to my new life”she testifies.
At the end of August, Votikova’s life changed completely when, on the desk of Slavia Prague where she was then playing, an offer from PSG landed. The capital club was then looking for a “athletic, slender and toned profile” after the departure of Chilean star Christiane Endler. “It was a great opportunity, a chance to turn a corner”says the player trained in Plzen, in the west of the country, not far from the village where she grew up.
Precisely, he sometimes misses his land: “It hasn’t been easy saying goodbye because it’s a huge life change.” And to qualify: “But in the end, I’m really happy where I am today.” On the lawns of PSG, the Czech grew up alongside the experienced Stéphanie Labbé and gained playing time over the weeks, until the surprise retirement of the Canadian at the end of January.
“I knew it would be a big challenge to compete with an Olympic champion, but that I would also learn a lot from her, and that was the case”describes Barbora Votikova, now indisputable in the starting position. “She did a lot of work on the tactical level, on taking initiatives”explains goalkeeping coach Guillaume Lemire, who describes “a very jovial person, very sharing”.
“She has this crazy side, this personality, which are very positive things in goalkeepers, but which had to be channeled a little bit”
Guillaume Lemire, PSG goalkeeping coachat AFP
Neither the growing football responsibilities nor the distance, in any case, keep the “Minister of Defense”, as she calls herself, away from her community of fans. “We are perhaps closer than ever, because they are really interested in the adventure that I live here”believes the footballer, who promises to never stop being “creative”even in the distant horizon. “I have a dream: to write a book and then make a film out of it”, she imagines. The project seems accessible for “Bara”, already author of an autobiography entitled “Trochu jinak” (A little different). The scenario is therefore all found: for the staging, the camera is in the suitcase.
