Back in the French team since the SheBelieves Cup last month, we met the Parisian midfielder in Clairefontaine. A "long interview" of which the captain of Paris FC confesses "to have done more for a long time". The opportunity to return with her history more or less eventful with the selection, and an interview without filter where the 32-year-old gives us his motivation, always greater, to shine this blue jersey.


It was noticed that on this list, Corinne Deacon put you in "attacking". Do you know if it's a desire to make you play higher? As has often been your case in France team.

Gaëtane Thiney: No, I do not think there is any particular impact. I'm in the middle, 9 and a half, 10. I'll have to ask the coach why, but I did not pay attention to that.


After many solid years in the French team, since the post-World Cup 2015 you live a more or less controversial course in France team. How did you manage this period?

G. T: As I could. I managed as I could. It was not easy at all. Many feelings of injustice. It's a little bit of my life story and my story as a player. All this is to turn it into positive and that it makes me stronger.

So how did I manage it? I talked a lot, I built a staff around me. I put a lot of things in place to be physically efficient and especially mentally where I really had a lot of support. I took a lot of advice from mental experts, and I continue today.


Yes, mentally it must have been hard to leave the French team at a time when you were one of the most used players? (She has the highest playing time on the 2015 World Cup qualifiers, after Louis Necib, Sabrina Delannoy and Sarah Bouhaddi, and finished top of the playoff scorers with 13 goals.)

G. T: Yes it's difficult. But again, it's part of me. The whole thing is not to be at the top. Finally, if we want to be at the top, but we must also know that as in life there are sometimes trials, pitfalls. I have experienced different challenges, and I have always managed to get my head out of the water, to be happy and to progress. I hope it will continue.


"I sang the Marseillaise 144 times, and every game is always the same emotion"

After the non-selection for the Olympic Games in Rio. You post on social networks a photo with # Objectif2019. Is it really a goal that you have checked and for which you have been working for a long time? Especially since in 2016 it seems far away from this goal ...

G. T: Yes in 2016 it was far, but I wanted to show that we should not collapse too. When you are a top athlete you need goals. For me, 2019 was one of them. I did not even put 2017 [with the Euro] by the way, I put 2019 because 2017 for me is part of the progression and progress towards 2019. Now there are still many stages, and I try to have a positive progression on and off the pitch.


With Corinne Deacon it's a bit of a second comeback. At the SheBelieves Cup you enter England and provoke the goal. On the field what was it like to be in this team?

G. T: Always a lot of pride. Represent the Blue is always beautiful. The difference from before is that before emotionally I was very involved. And I think that with all the hardships I've experienced, I managed to protect myself a little bit more. Now I think I'll let go the day I'll have the World Cup maybe.

But, I have 144 selections, I sang the Marseillaise 144 times, and every game is always the same emotion that was extraordinary. There I try that she is just ordinary. It's not pejorative it's a lot of emotions. But when you are hypersensitive, do not go too high, otherwise you go down very low. My goal is clear and clear: the 2019 World Cup, win and perform. I will do everything for it.


"If I put a hat-trick in the final I would go maybe until the Olympics. "


Will this be your last competition?

G. T: If I am very successful at the World Cup and we win ... I often say with a laugh "If I put a hat-trick in the final, I'll go maybe until the Olympics. But no, I do not ask myself that question.

I try to live each time the moment, setting me additional steps to progress on all areas of performance. Whether on the field, technical, tactical, physical, video, mental. We progress at any age, then I have a lot of experience, I have to use it to move forward.


With Olivier Echouafni, you were mostly confined to a role of "super sub". Do you have the impression that you concerning Corinne Deacon is a little in the same scheme?

G. T: I do not think no. Once again the Euro was also a transition phase. After the coach made his choices. He had the opportunity to play me in 10, he did not put me. That I'm 25 years old, 32, that I come back, that I do not come back, it's choices I think in profile of players.

My profile is a little atypical. I was not trained in the training centers that we do in France. From 14 to 17 years old I was with senior boys and I developed something else. I have certain shortcomings and I have certain strengths. Now, my goal is to bring this team. I do not want to be at the World Cup, [number] 23, and carry the balloons. It's not pejorative but I think that in a career, there are stages and mine is to be successful. I do not say that I have to be in the eleven, because the game will say it and football is going very fast. But my goal is that I count on me to make the team perform better.


On this previous stage and therefore the SheBelieves Cup, what was the speech of the coach about you?

G. T: I knew that I was not going to start England and that behind I was going to play. The goal was to prove that I had my place on this team. All this is to do it at the right time, in the right place. The goal was also for me to situate myself and see if I was able to face big nations of women's football, to express myself. Because sometimes we doubt anyway. It's an internship that gave me confidence, now the hardest part remains to be done. Show it once is good, but the most difficult is to show that this level of requirement is put in every game.


"We were both happy to meet and recreate automatisms"

On the match against Germany in particular, we felt that your ability to find influence in the game was still there. We see it with this decisive pass for Eugénie Le Sommer and two hockey assist (the penultimate pass on a goal). We also felt a return of a certain familiarity.

G. T: Yes I felt it a bit like you. What I remember from these matches, beyond the sports performance, is the sharing we had. I like to score the players, I like to create the gaps and I like to score too. These three things I should do in every game.

Sharing after the goals, to feel a real complicity, it was a strong mark for me. When Eugénie [Le Sommer] comes into my arms, we were both happy to meet again and recreate automatisms that are, at a high level, always difficult to create.

It's true that we talked about it after both, on the third goal when I put the ball in a touch where it goes after deep for Valerie [Gauvin]. In fact, I knew she was going to go and she knew I was going to put her on, even before I got the ball. These are things that make you happy. Finally, if we withdraw a little context, the environment, the stake, we play a little for that.


We know that you knew Corinne Deacon when she was assistant to Bruno Bini. A period when you were a key player of the France team. Not seeing you in the first lists was a real surprise. For you too ? Or did she call you upstream to explain this choice?

G. T: No I was not aware at all. I was a little surprised. It was not such a simple period. I obviously wondered a lot of questions. But I was always very attentive to his speech which was that the door was open. So I stayed hooked on this, trying to eliminate my frustration as much as possible and continue to stay focused on my performances. And telling me that, at one time or another, I would have my chance. And then, that was the case. But yes it's not easy, especially since I already had a history so we ask a lot of questions.


In these first lists, another player we used to see in Blue was not there either: Mayor-Laure Delie. She has since been lucky, but has not been recalled later. Even if his situation, especially in club is not the same as yours. When your luck came, did you say "now it's gone or double"?

G. T: Not really. I was looking for the chance to play the top three nations to gauge myself. I was in the moment. At the end of the match I said to myself "I should have done it, do that" because I'm a perfectionist, but I was happy. And again, I still have this filter that says not to ignite and keep a lot of humility. Collectively and individually, to move forward.

The list after I looked (she mimes the corner of the eye). And as I was in the attackers, I was the last (laughs). But there is always this little grain there and it is what is beautiful too.

"I've never been as ready as today"


You who have often been part of the "only players" non-professional team France. How do you see this radical change since the arrival of Corine Deacon, who sees emerge a team from France with players from all D1 clubs: Guingamp, Fleury, OM ...?

G. T: In my head, I have been professional for 10 years. Being professional for me means putting all things on your side to be successful. My choice of life, which is to work alongside, is a professional choice for football since it's my balance. It is not a constraint that I impose myself in fact, since otherwise I would be in another club and I would do something else.

To see other players [in this case] so much the better, so much the better for them. If they are there it is that Corinne Deacon determines that they have the level to be here. Whatever club they are in. Then, the clubs will make them evolve too because they will have to put in the best dispositions to be able to welcome the players, to train them in good conditions, to have medical follow-ups of high level ... is all that goes with it.


Is the dual project, for you it's easier to manage because what is outside of football is still football? (in reference to his post at the FFF)

G. T: No I do not think so. It's still football but what I like in my work is to lead projects. Have a team of ten technical executives who come, to organize their work, to make retro-planning, goals to achieve ... It's more the project mode that I like. Inside is football, yes it's great. But if tomorrow I had to be in a company, I would be in a company.

What's easier for me is that because I have a year-round mission, I can organize my work time as I want. So finally I have a schedule that is completely compatible with the practice of a high level sport. Since I have no time constraints. The goal is simple, it is that in the end my mission, it is filled. So finally it makes me autonomous, responsible and it makes me take initiatives. And, maybe it's transversal also with the terrain where I am rather autonomous, responsible and where I take initiatives.


It is often said that for a player the maturity is around 30 years. But we see in France a lot of players stop before. Does this put extra pressure on players like you?

G. T: No, I have no worries with age! I think there is a need for experienced players. I think at 32 we are in great shape, at least I have never been so physically. Mentally, I have a sports psychologist who follows me, who follows Teddy Riner, who follows great champions so finally I have never been as ready as today, with a long experience. I like football, I love it, and I think performance from morning to night. The day when I will not be more efficient or the day when I will not have more pleasure I will not be there anymore. Today the two are together. But the performance must always raise it so here we go to see what happens over the coming months, the next years.