The “new” Corinne Diacre maintains her line…within one bend. The Bleues coach once again did without Amandine Henry and Eugénie Le Sommer, historic figures of the Bleues, for the matches at the end of October, while summoning on Thursday the Parisian Kheira Hamraoui, who has been missing for two and a half years.
Beyond the armband given back to Wendie Renard, the back-to-school list in September had already caused a lot of talk with the sidelining of these two executives. A choice at “the T moment”, she explained at the time, but which seems set to continue. A sign of this renewal, the Lyon contingent, long the backbone of the Bleues, will be greatly reduced for the two qualifying duels for the 2023 World Cup against Estonia on October 22 in Créteil, then on the 26th in Nur-Sultan against Kazakhstan. Even if it is as much a voluntary choice as a forced one. Stuck in the infirmary, Amel Majri (knee), Wendie Renard (thigh) and Griedge Mbock (muscle injury) will see their teammates Perle Morroni, Melvine Malard and Delphine Cascarino join Clairefontaine without them.
“The door is not closed to anyone, now I make choices. The proof is today with this list, with the return of certain players and the arrival of young players,” explained Deacon, when asked about the absence of the Lyon midfielder and the attacker loaned to OL Reign ten months before the Euro in England. “I build things around certain people while trying to keep this balance between continuity and renewal, experience and youth.”
“I will have to have a discussion with” Hamraoui, warns Deacon
At the heart of this dosage, a major surprise, a bit like the one concocted by Didier Deschamps before the Euro with Karim Benzema. Kheira Hamraoui, the neo-Parisian who arrived free from FC Barcelona this summer, is back. At 31, she has 36 caps but had only been selected once since the start of Deacon’s mandate in 2017, and that for a handful of minutes against Japan (2019). The midfielder undoubtedly took advantage of his excellent season last year with FC Barcelona (treble of the Championship, Queen’s Cup and Champions League) to convince Deacon to give him another chance.
“I haven’t taken her all season, it’s not because she’s won three titles that I’m necessarily going to take her,” Deacon replied in June, preferring to retain Sandie Toletti. “I have no problem with Kheira. This is a purely sporting decision. No decision is ever final, in one sense or another,” she was careful to add. The player expressed her disappointment on social networks: “I miss you so much, French team… What more could I have done to be able to find you again? “.
“I will have to have a discussion with her, on the motivations which pushed me to take her back,” Deacon confided Thursday, hoping to count on her “experience”, but also saying that the staff will be “attentive” to his attitude in the locker room. “We need this mix between performance on the field and a good state of mind in group life.”
