France team – Euro 2022 preparation: Charlotte Bilbault, midfielder without fear but not without reproach

A sign, too, that Bilbault has made a full place for himself over the years in this French team where, for a long time, few would have bet on seeing her line up so many selections (44). Unlike Louisa Necib, Camille Abily, Gaetane Thiney or Amandine Henry, her glorious predecessors in the French midfield, she is less known to the general public, who could only see her 98 minutes (a tenure plus an entry into game, in the group stage), during the World Cup at home in 2019. Bilbault, it is not the player from whom we will ask the most for an autograph, or the one we will hear the most in the media.

A situation that saddens Camille Abily: “Already, she has nothing to do with it”poses the former innkeeper of the Blue, now assistant coach at the Fenottes. “It’s not easy to be in her place because she’s a real soldier, a player who gives everything, who has a lot of energy. Now, Amandine Henry, she was one of the best players in the world at a time, so obviously it’s very difficult to compare, regardless of the player who will play in her place. It’s like when, before, we wanted to compare certain players to Louisa Necib “.

“What is certain is that Amandine Henry is a very good player with a lot of experience, and we know her talentadds Yannick Chandioux, who is delighted to train, next season, Charlotte Bilbault, who signed in Montpellier a few weeks before the start of the Euro. After Henry is a good or great player doesn’t stop Charlotte from being a good and great player either. I think this is a non-issue. Maybe the two could have played together in a 4-2-3-1 in the France team, but it’s a choice of Corinne (Deacon)”.

Because the coach, by depriving herself of the former Portland Thorns player, indirectly put pressure on her replacement, to whom she also entrusted the armband for almost a year, before giving it back to Wendie Renard in September 2021 Which does not prevent the number 14 of the France team from taking it back, when the defender is not on the ground, like last Friday. In a very heavy post-World Cup atmosphere, enamelled with many tensions, Bilbault first had to work to bring some serenity to a group marked by a competition far from its ambitions: “I finished with the armband, I’m very happy with it. I don’t have a position to have, I’m just a player for the France team. I was called by the staff. My job is is to bring what I know how to do on the field. Everyone has different opinions and choices, the most important thing is to exchange. The image of the French team is the most important “she recalled shortly after taking power in the midfield, at the end of 2020.

It must be said that, according to all the interlocutors interviewed, this unifying role seems to suit her perfectly. “He’s someone who doesn’t give up, who is aggressive and who always responds in duels.describes Eve Perisset, right side of the Bleues, holder with Bilbault during the match against the Indomitable Lionesses. If we have to go to war with her, we know we can go, she will always be with us by our side”continues the new Chelsea player, who also speaks, off the field, of a “good lively girl, who likes to joke and laugh”.

“A winner, for sure, a competitor, yes, with this desire to win and to pull the group with her, that’s what emerges first”adds Yannick Chandioux, who adds, when asked why he wanted to bring her to the MHSC: “I find that she is a very interesting player in relation to her athletic profile and her volume of play in the middle. Her character also interests me, I need character in my team and that, she will really help us. to bring”.

Abily, who was able to meet her at Clairefontaine, when, then already well established in the France group, she saw Bilbault arrive there in 2015, also talks about her side of“a girl with character who, like on the pitch, doesn’t let herself be pushed around. That’s why it’s not easy to be in her place, because the absence of Amandine Henry has caused a lot of talk , and when you play at your position it’s not easy”. Eve Perisset agrees with the words of the one who will officiate as a consultant for TF1 during the competition: “It’s difficult, when you’re a player, to be compared to another all the time. Amandine and Charlotte have two different profiles, so it’s hard to compare the two, each has their qualities”.

And when some point to her lack of experience at the highest level, especially in the Champions League where Henry shone again this year in the final with a fantastic goal, Perisset, Bilbault’s former teammate for two seasons, in Bordeaux, which they had succeeded to climb to third place in the championship in 2021, still disapproves: “Charlotte, she has been in the selection for a few years so she also has experience”.

Bilbault also suffers from a much lower performance than Henry in front of goal. With only one achievement in her career in A, she has 12 units less than the Lyonnaise, who has honored, however, 49 more selections. For the Barangeonnaise, this Euro, and the possibility of finally making France cross the milestone of the quarter-finals, more reached since the London Olympics in 2012, can therefore sound like revenge. “She can’t wait to show that she has the level, quite simplyassures Camille Abily. And when you’re a high-level athlete, it’s part of the job, you have to respond. We often said that we were world champion in friendlies, but in official matches we failed to do so, so I hope this generation will do it this summer.”.

“What she gives off is interesting for the group and for the team. She will certainly be of service to the French team in a few weeks and that’s really a good thing, wants to believe on his side Yannick Chandioux. And I think her career is far from over despite being in her thirties.”. Freed, finally, from the weight of expectations and the criticisms that overwhelm her? Answer this summer.