Coming from Guingamp, Caroline La Villa (defender) joined the LOSC which evolves in D2, this season to bring its experience of D1 Feminine in particular. A surprising choice? For the U19 European Champion it is a conscious challenge, which she wants to take up, since the beginning or almost of the birth of this project, with as objective its accession in D1. But it was above all a means for her, to find the essence of football, that of self-fulfillment. Interview.

Before that we came back with her, this Sunday, on the famous match of Coupe de France opposing the two leaders of the D2 Feminine. His club, the LOSC on one side and the Val d'Orge on the other. A duel "runners" at the D1, symbolic but how important for the confidence of the players. For La Villa it is above all "a good match of recovery against Val d'Orge, we knew how to put the intensity that was necessary and especially to play our game! It is a good preparation for the resumption of the championship the next week." The club nordiste also had the opportunity to play at home, since Val d'Orge had 1 small point more than his opponent "it's sure that playing at home put us in good shape, we our habits, our benchmarks ... even if the match was played at the Domaine de Luchin ... "The player also reports that the Lille team" was keen to start this year 2017, especially at home. " Bet raised. Now it's up to us to continue this momentum, to take the matches one after the other and to get back to work this week, and a lot of Wednesday for the draw! " Well, that day has arrived. It is good today that the draw takes place. But before knowing their opponent for the round of 32, we contacted the player last December, at the winter break to have, his feelings, his opinion on his new club, his new team and discuss his journey until today 'hui.

You had a pretty atypical course, yet you start football at 10, in Montpellier, your city, then Juvignac and Lattoise, before returning to Montpellier, to go through Saint-Etienne, Monteux, then the EAG, then ask your suitcases this season at LOSC. Are these personal choices or in spite of you?
No, not that almost personal choices. I was trained in Montpellier, where I come from, then I left Clairefontaine at 14, I spent 3 years, I returned to Montpellier. After Montpellier, I did not really play time so I left 1 year in Saint-Etienne to play a little. But I did not really adapt to Saint-Etienne. Then I bounced back at Guingamp, I spent 2 years there and then I extended 2 years, so I stayed 4 years in total. After I arrived at the end of the contract, last season. I had the choice to continue there and I had the LOSC proposal. I wanted to see a little something else so that's why I decided to come to Lille.

Why did you decide to join LOSC this season? How did the transition between the D1 and the D2 happen for you?
I wanted another project, it was 4 years I was in Guingamp, I needed to see a little something else especially on the sporting level. I had an exchange with the coach and Jules-Jean and it's true that I liked their speech and go on another project it's true that it tempted me sportingly.
So, it's done "very quickly" at the end of the season last year. After the choice D1 or D2 it did not bother me, because my project is eventually to play the climb with the LOSC, that's it. Either this year or next year and live the experience, be in the top of the table and win this title for the climb. It was either that, or stay in D1, but live a new challenge.

We know that there are players, especially in Marseille, who also made this choice, like Caroline Pizzala or Sandrine Bretigny, a winning bet for them. Did you also want to participate in a project, the "genesis" of a club like the LOSC in the elite?
Yes that's right, it was exactly that. Well afterwards I was part of a club that has a professional structure anyway and it was really "from the beginning", from the beginning even if it's been a year since they [the LOSC] took over Templemars. But it was really building something with the staff, with the players and gradually going up and creating something, so that was my will. I found myself in the values ​​of the club.

"There is something serious and there is potential."

Today, you are leader, everything is fine for you, you have integrated well on your side, the group seems to live well together. As a new recruit, you soon found your place?
Yes, so I was surprised by the operation on arrival. I found the club very professionnel, for a club that had just been taken over by the LOSC, for a D2 club, so that was a good thing. After the group lives well, there is a very good atmosphere. The staff is serious too. We our goal is to play the top of the table, to be in the top three. Today, we are first, but it's true that we do not have the objective of going up or going up. It's really building something little by little and taking the games one after the other, working together and really creating game content really with the players we have. But it is sure that there was a very good recruitment at the summer break, with the Belgian international and even French there so there is something serious and there is potential.It is true that it surprises a lot of person [not to fix on the rise] it is true, but we our goal is to set up our plan of play, the way of playing, a project, it is really to be found there in and after the results will come alone. After that it is true that we will get caught up in the game, we are already in the middle of the season, we are first, we have some point ahead so we sure believe but we do not say "we absolutely have to ride" or whatever. In any case, it is the speech that the leaders make us pass and that the girls have adopted. We realize that for now it works.Is sure it's in the heads of everyone, we want to be first, but it is above all not to grill the stages and see a small little how it goes after [in this second part of the season].

On your side you quickly found your place in the workforce?
Yes yes yes, I was very well integrated, whether at the club level, or at the level of the staff or players, I quickly took my bearings and even if it's been 6 months that I'm there I feel like I've been there a lot longer (laughs).

20/11/2016 - Stadium Annex of Villeneuve d'Ascq - Division 2 F - 10th day -
LOSC - SAINT MALO (7/0) .The motivation of Lille players before the kickoff.

Last June, you won the Military World Cup, 6 months later, what will you remember?
Above all, it is truly a huge satisfaction and a great personal experience. Yet I lived a lot of selections but it is one of the most beautiful memories that I lived because it is, I think, the staff who contributed a lot but really the group, who had it was really beautiful. There was really a spirit of values, of solidarity. It was really the group above all, what and I think it's because of that we won because it was in the semifinals or the final, we still played big nations (Cameroon, Korea South, Brazil) that have character, we knew how to answer and it is true that if we had not had the strength of the group, we would not have won. Yet there were really very good players [in France Team]. If I have to remember something, it's really the group spirit. This is the first time I saw this.

It's still a pride, because we're going to say that you wear high the tricolor with this title, since it is certainly the highest trophy that a selection has had in the history of football in France?
That's it, and especially with the military selection, we really talk about the nation, the values ​​of France so it's really a huge pride to have been able to win this trophy. In addition it was in France, it was in Brittany so it is a very very beautiful thing.

"I always took the France team as a plus, as a reward"

You are also part of these players who knew the French team, since you played in U17, U19, and 2 games in U20, before being called in France B team, has gone through the national selections, did you have more confidence in the field?
Yes, I always took the team of France as a plus, as a reward compared to what I did in a club, whether it was since very young in Montpellier or Claireonftaine, in my other clubs. The selection I did not necessarily think it was really working in my club, give everything I could and ensutie have the selection. After that it is sure that it allows to pass levels, because necessarily the international level, it is a level of requirement really different from that of the D1 or the D2 or the young levels. There really is that. After that, it allowed me more in the field, of course, but apart from also forging a character in relation to all that I could live, I traveled, I saw things, I met people, great girls so here it is. It also allows you to pass levels in his game in the field sportively but it also allowed me to find the values ​​that I have today

Indeed, in 2010 you won the title of U19 European Champion, I guess it must be your favorite memory of your career as a youngster, before gleaning the title with Montpellier national challenge U19, in 2011. What do you remember? in hindsight ?
Yes it is a title [national] which equals a small one of the French military team, both I put them on the same footing. It's a little further so that's why. But both, it's really two wonderful experiences, it's huge. [Not to mention the national challenge] yes that was when I was younger, it was nice too. It's three beautiful experiences. It is true that this year if there is the rise, it would be something else because it is not a competition, with elimination, it lasts a whole season, where we live with a group, there is high, there's down, it's really a beautiful thing to live so we'll see, but it could complete a little bit my journey.

These are titles and a stored experience that allow you today to be an experienced player and bring a plus to LOSC this season?
Yes especially we have a lot of young players and we realize that they are very good players, who sometimes need to be framed and it is true that with a little hindsight and can be a small few experiments also in selections and other, we [let] them to realize certain things. It's bringing the little plus of each, making a group and trying to build something with the LOSC.

"I project a little more on the LOSC over several years"

You go back twice to your home base, the club of Montpellier, is it for you A goal to go back, maybe to get closer to your family if it's there? No, no, I went back because my family was there but it's not necessarily my goal to come back to Montpellier. It's really about building a project with a club where I would meet. I found it at Guingamp, I wanted to change because in the end it corresponded more necessarily. There I find myself completely in LOSC so that it continues [like that], we'll see. Anyway I take the seasons, one after the other, even if there I project a little more on the LOSC over several years. Even if I love my family, I love my city (laughs) I'm a bit chauvinistic [from Montpellier].

"It was hard to live with the group without being able to help them"

Last season with Guingamp it was difficult to live I think for you as for the club, which has brushed "the zone of relegation" is it a moment that precipitated your decision to join Lille?
No because two years ago, I got injured, I had crossoperative surgery so I had just returned with the D1 in January (2016) so there was already a season that had passed, and I started my first games at least January so I did not really face the problem of the group, even though I was at the workout, but I did not really live it because I did not spend a full season at that moment there. But that's not what motivated my departure, no, no. On the contrary, it was hard to live with the group without being able to help them. I was there, it was hard to see them galley like that because it was really a difficult season. It allowed me to have a different experience, but that's not what made my decision. It was more of a personal choice, to see something else, especially sporting.

21-08-2016 - Friendly match between LOSC and WAREGEM (Belgium) (1-0) at ANNOEULLIN (NORTH) - Caroline LA VILLA.

Unlike some of your teammates you have the experience of D1 and selection, it is certainly a real plus to the group, do you distill your advice to girls?
It happens to me sometimes (laughs) even a little too much (laughs). It happens to me especially for the young people to guide them in the field. After me I am someone who will have a strong character, a strong temperament on the field, in a good way of course, who will talk a lot, who will lead a lot, we will say, but always positively. I will not tend to explain or on the contrary to annoy me against younger players. I am still in the pedagogy. After my position as a defender, I'm a little in the heart of the game so I tend to steer a little my teammates, it's true. But for that to bring to the group.

You also wore the captain's armband, that's a role you wanted to have at LOSC at 24?
Not a role I wanted to have, it's really the coach who decides that. Well that's done on the last match of the Coupe de France, the captain was sick so Jérémie [Descamps] gave me the armband, so for me it was really a pride anyway. After armband or not, I will take over naturally in the field, I will have the same behavior. I was lucky enough to have the armband on that match, it made me happy, it is a mark of confidence anyway.

"we start to be regular in international competitions"

You are the second generation U19 to have won the Euro trophy, before the generation Lavogez, Bihan, Tounkara, M'Bock, Toletti, Dafeur, Robert and co do the same in 2013 and that of Katoto, Moroni and Geyoro does not follow the same path this year, it proves that France has a real role to play in Europe?
Yes, yes yes, it proves that we are starting to take our marks, that we are starting to be regular in international competitions so that's good. After the A should really win a trophy to top it all but the Women's Football advance in France and the leagues, by all the actions of the districts, poles that are structured and all that. This is how we will move forward. After I think there is a plus that is being done in women's football, it is the structuring of the clubs and of course the pro clubs that arrive, we see different clubs [Ligue 1] who arrive, how the Girondins de Bordeaux, Olympique Marseille, LOSC and more will be better and it will be. In addition they bring infrastructure, they provide the means that "some small clubs" without wanting to be nasty but that's true that it also brings a plus to women's football. Everything is structured and then the Federation really puts the emphasis on promotion and that's what will make our nation evolve internationally.

There are a lot of things that are put in place. I'm a little bit in the middle, because I pass my coaching diplomas, so I'm at the level of football schools and sports sections and we realize that there are a lot of things, actions which are put in place, it's really good. Well, I did not have it at my age (laughs) so I can see the difference.

Before making an exceptional trip to the World Cup, is this a turning point, this generation, and the previous generation that gives hope for the best for the next few years, namely 2018 and 2019 especially?
Of course yes. Yes I think after what we do at the level of training in France is good and there we realize that each time there are generations, who can go to the highest in international competitions even if we do not have the titles every time but here it is to show that we begin to evolve, to structure and the more it will go and the more we will succeed in competing with big nations. After me I compare compared to my time, when we played Germany, the big nations, the United States, it was really monsters in front of us and then we realize that we manage to compete more easily so that means that we are able to progress at our level and we manage to match them so it's encouraging for the rest it's on.

"why not the climb, but then we'll see"

With your hindsight and your high level experience, you have passed a certain course, what are your goals today? Is EDF A in a corner of your head?
Sportingly, it's really to find my place at LOSC, to try to make a full season, a good season why not the climb, but then we'll see with the club, find myself in this club, build something. But inevitably the selection I think but it is that more and if it can return to B or A, it will be really positive, but my priority is really to work for the club and try to bring something to young people and bring to LOSC. This is my priority goal.
When your top athletes, you are obliged to have this goal [the France team] in mind, normally. Whether it's B or reunion courses or other A, it's really something sensational. But that's the reward of a job, which will be done with the LOSC.

Last question, when you see the excitement around women's football, do you think that the future of the D1 Feminine will be exclusively with clubs attached to Ligue 1?
Humm not exclusively because we still have structures like Juvisy, who are able to show that they are high level so no. After that, we will have a lot of professional clubs that will be in D1 Feminine because as I said, they bring resources, infrastructures that some clubs do not have and at some point it will do the difference even if there are still small clubs that resist at a given moment, they will be absorbed and we will end up with only pro clubs. But there will be 2/3 clubs that will stay there, like Juvisy, as Soyaux ... they can still have a place in D1. After term we will have a lot of pro structure, whether in D2 or D1, we realize. There's FC Lorient, there's FC Nantes going up, there's Clermont ... Just at LOSC. It will become professional little by little, the more it will go, the more it will come, for sure.

Photo: Foot B'Elles - Manu Cahu