Pauline Peyraud-Magnin during the match against Panama, in Sydney (Australia), August 2, 2023. DAVID GRAY / AFP
Pauline Peyraud-Magnin has long lived in the shadows. Difficult to get out of that of Sarah Bouhaddi, goalkeeper for a long time unstoppable at Olympique Lyonnais as in the France team. Nothing was easy for the last bulwark of Les Bleues, whose eventful career has seen her wear the colors of seven clubs in eight years. Before finding, since 2021, stability within the prestigious Juventus Turin.
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At 31, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin is playing her second World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the first as a holder in the Blue cages. With its partners, it will face Morocco, Tuesday August 8 at 1 p.m. (Paris time), in the round of 16 of the World Cup. During Euro 2022, the Lyonnaise succeeded in her first major competition in this crucial function, participating in the good course of the Tricolores until the semi-finals.
But the 30-year-old had to fight to gain this recognition. Called into Blue for the first time in 2017, she did not honor her first selection until April 2019 – her debut was cut short by an injury after twenty minutes of play. Substitute at the 2019 World Cup in France, she spent the competition on the bench. And it was not until September 2020, when Bouhaddi declined the selection, that she was established. “This is all new to me. I waited for it, I worked for it, she says. I did everything in my power to get there. »
Impose your passion on your family
A few months before the World Cup, the departure of Corinne Deacon and her replacement by Hervé Renard have reshuffled the cards. During the April rally, the new boss of Les Bleues chose to line up once Peyraud-Magnin (against Colombia) and once his young competitor, Constance Picaud (against Canada). Accustomed to fighting, the goalkeeper did not take umbrage: “I try to prove on a daily basis. There is no legitimacy in football. Only deeds and work. I never take anything for granted. »
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Although from a football-loving family, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin first had to impose her passion on her family, which rather predestined the young girl to sports labeled as more feminine, such as gymnastics or horse riding. Then an outfield player, she was spotted by OL as a teenager, then revealed herself as a goalkeeper during a training session where a specialist in the position was missing.
In Lyon, the young woman played her first match with the first team at the age of 22. But she only played seven games in two years, and then began a journey in search of playing time. Between 2014 and 2017, she chained trainer loans to Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), Saint- Etienne or Marseilles.
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