France team – Expected at the Euro, future in suspense: for Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the summer will be hot

With our colleagues from RMCa few days ago, the top scorer of D1 Arkema (18 goals in 21 matches) expressed her dissatisfaction with the club: “It’s been ten years since the Qataris arrived. If after ten years it doesn’t work, it’s because there’s something that needs to be changed. We need to question ourselves, develop. is all I wish for PSG which is a beautiful club which has everything going for it.”. Native to the Paris region, trained in Paris, the one who has a queen’s name and who we see – like a certain Kylian Mbappé – winning a Ballon d’Or in the years to come, is viscerally attached to her colors.

The number 9, which offered the second title of the women’s section by scoring the only goal in the final of the Coupe de France 2018 against Lyon, before participating fully in ending Rhodanienne’s hegemony in the league last year , demanded more recognition from PSG. She asked, like the French golden boy, to be put at the center of the project in the event of an extension with PSG: “I understood that over the years. Are they (the Parisian leaders) really ready to do it? It’s up to them to see, it’s up to them to decideshe already hinted. I have always wanted the good of Paris Saint-Germain and the happiness of my teammates, the staff, the employees. Afterwards, whatever happens, I will play football. I will be happy”.

Beyond the burning questions around his future, it is on the pitch that Katoto hopes to get noticed, once again, this summer. The one who is running at one goal per C1 match this season will indeed discover the deep end by playing her first major international competition with the A. Because in 2019, for the World Cup at home, Corinne Deacon chose to do without the native of Colombes.

“You have to put things in their context, defended the coach at a press conference at the end of May. Marie was coming out of a U20 World Cup in 2018… I don’t know if I can use the word catastrophic, but in any case she didn’t live up to what she hoped for. 2019 was a bit early to take her with us. Marie has this talent. We have known for a while, she has been performing with the youth selections for a very long time”. “I have no regrets not having taken her in 2019 because I think the state of mind in which she was at that time would not have served either her or the France team”, she added.

14 goals in his last 11 appearances

Water flowed under the bridges and, “for 2 years, she has been transformed”analyzes Yannick Chandioux, Montpellier coach who has often had to face the player, author of 14 goals in his last 11 selections, in the league. “She is very consistent in her performances. Despite the fact that it is her first (competition with Les Bleues), she is ready”, believes the former coach of Dijon. Who completes: “I think she gives off something strong for the team. She is powerful, capable of scoring goals in all positions, she has a formidable heading game, and that is one of the strong weapons for the team of France with Wendie Renard on set pieces. I think that can be the key to unlocking some tight matches.”.

Eve Perisset, who had to rub shoulders with Katoto in training during her four seasons at PSG, then later in matches under the colors of Bordeaux, confirms that the opposing defenders should have a bad time this summer: “Already, she protects her ball very well. In addition, she is strong in front or behind the game, she can go deep, technically she is very clean. For me, she is a very complete player”. Deacon, in any case, showed all his confidence in his player: “We have often said that Marie was not performing well in major events. Today, we don’t talk about it anymore, she is”. In particular in the France team where she is now at 24 goals in 28 selections, and again made an impression during the Tournoi de France (friendly) in February, by scoring twice against Brazil and the Netherlands, champions of Europe and reigning vice-world champions.

Enough to reinforce the status of a player who, accustomed to the blows of brilliance on the ground, is much more discreet outside, at least in the media. A reserve that quickly shatters with its partners, once the ice is broken, as Lyonnaise Melvine Malard tells us, who got closer to the player during the preparation for the Euro: “She’s not like that at all. I’m very happy to share moments with her, whether on the pitch or off, because I didn’t know her before that. And today, I talk a lot with her, we talk a lot about football”.

Thus, the one that her teammates describe as “calm” et “relaxed”despite the agitation that reigns before the start of the Euro, does not hesitate to distill his tips to the less experienced: “In training, she advises me a lotsays Malard. As for example on the face-to-face with the goalkeeper. I sometimes hesitate when I find myself in these situations. Marie, that’s something she had before I think and she manages very well now. That’s why she is a top scorer, why she manages to score difficult goals with great ease. She’s a girl who has her head on her shoulders, who thinks of helping the team, of doing her best every day, so I appreciate her a lot. He’s one of my examples on the offensive level.”rents the Fenotte.

Faced with the 52nd nation Fifa, swept away during the only confrontation with the Blues (6-0 in 2018), she therefore hopes to get on her feet and gain a little more confidence, before a Euro where she will be scrutinized closely. France will need it to chain the goals, to finally cross the glass ceiling for this selection, which remains on 5 failures in the quarter-finals since 2013.