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With the coronavirus crisis, UNFP, the union of French professional footballers, will not organize a training course this summer for professional players at the end of their contract and looking for a new club.
Created in 1990, the UNFP summer course has the particularity of bringing together those who are looking for a club. Each year, around eighty take part in this off-season course, allowing them to talk physically and collectively, to exchange ideas, in the hope of bouncing back.
But the coronavirus health crisis prevented this gathering for the first time in thirty years. The organizers are not able to fully meet the mandatory health conditions. On its website, the UNFP, which notably defends the interests of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 players, lists more than one hundred and eighty footballers at the end of their contracts in the two French championships (Ligue 1, Ligue 2). Last year, about eighty players failed to rebound and were forced to end their careers as a hundred young people entered the profession.
No question of endangering participants
« Each year, we create an ephemeral club for about seven weeks, with the same structures as the Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 formations, explains Philippe Lafon, Director General of the UNFP. All, players and staff, are looking for a new contract. Unfortunately, with around seventy participants, we could not implement the medical protocol implemented in the clubs and follow it to the letter. And there was no question of endangering the participants. »
According to Philippe Lafon, this internship has so far made it possible to maintain the players physically during the summer, put them forward with matches to show themselves in their best light against the recruiters. ” They could go to try it more calmly since they had psychological support, were not isolated, and had meetings in the legs “He says. The coronavirus pandemic has halted the project for 2020.
To make up for this lack, the UNFP contacted all those who were to participate in the rally. The union offered individual physical training at home for four weeks. Those who wish can also be put in contact with a mental coach, in addition to anonymous psychological help which operates all year round. ” Do not put aside the psychological aspect that can lead to distress “, Alerts Philippe Lafon. Since 2012, the UNFP has set up a telephone listening platform with psychologists to fight anonymously against addictions and problems of depression.
The testimony of Jérémy Grimm, former midfielder in Strasbourg
« This internship is a superb initiative and I think of all those who have benefited from it in previous years “, Says Jérémy Grimm, midfielder in Strasbourg in Ligue 1, at the end of the contract. At 33, he still has his football career in mind, which he started in Switzerland in 2007. Trained at RC Strasbourg, Jérémy Grimm returned to his club for a month after confinement. Today, he stands alone at home, waiting to bounce back elsewhere. ” It is the first time that I am at the end of the contract and it is not lucky that this happens to me this year, with the coronavirus. It’s frustrating not to be able to benefit from this internship “, He testifies.
« I adapt, I do things differently and I work with a physical trainer. I know my body and I know what I need even if it does not replace the collective spirit that I lack. I hope to find a club that can help me at first to continue my physical preparation, to keep the pace and be ready when signing somewhere “Explains the Strasbourg resident.
« Every year there are more and more people on the market, you have to hang on and be motivated. It was not really the right year to be at the end of the contract “Concludes Jérémy Grimm.
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