Like many, Anna Clérac nurtured her passion for football in a playground. Since her first dribbling, the player of Soyaux has come a long way, even though at 19, her adventure is finally just beginning. An interview where we talk in particular about her start of the season with Soyaux, the French team with its title of European champion in U19 this summer before a departure in a few days to Oceania where Anna and the Bleutettes will play in the Under-20 World Cup.

Football Hearts: To start, we can see that Soyaux is rather a good start to the season, despite the heavy defeat opening against OL. What is your view of your first matches?

Anna Clérac: Already, we do not have a very easy schedule [with] Lyon to start the championship. We took 9-0 and then we chained against Rodez, where we made 1-1. This match sent us a little bit and then there was the victory against Marseille [2-1] and we had Juvisy [2-1 defeat to Juvisy]. So it's not very easy, but we have a good team this year to make a good ranking.

CDF: In addition to Saint-Etienne and Rodez, each time you take a point away against teams "of the same level", so it must give you confidence?

A.C: Yes, for us it's a good point. Because Rodez led us to the score, Saint-Étienne too, and we come back to the score each time. After, we led against Saint-Etienne, but not very long so it's a shame. But yes, we took a point which is rather satisfactory.

CDF: And for you personally, getting to score a goal early in the season was important or is it a detail?

A.C: No, for me it's a goal like any other. For the team it's great and it makes us win the point. Otherwise, yes, I would like to score more.

The match against Marseille, on October 9, the first victory of Soyaux this season and a game a little special for Anna Clérac

CDF: In this beginning of the season, you played against Olympique de Marseille which, from what you can read in several of your interviews, is your favorite team. What did it make you play against Marseille and win against this team?

A.C: It's not a dream come true, but for me it was a great match because Marseille is the team I've been supporting since I was very young, with my brothers. Suddenly, find myself facing the team of Olympique Marseille, yes it's something. I was happy to have won.

CDF: And you got a jersey at the end of the match?

A.C: A flag

"Football is what funneled me the most"
CDF: To talk about your beginnings, in your childhood ... When talking with players born in the late 1980s, early 1990s, the event that is often evoked in their desire to play football, it's is the victory of France at the 1998 World Cup in boys. For you [Anna was born in 1997], was there an event, a team or a player that made you want to play football?

A.C: No, I have been football since I was a kid, so I always wanted to play football and succeed. After yes, I love Cristiano Ronaldo, all his dribbling and his speed. I love this player but otherwise, no, there was not a particular click that made me want to go even higher. It's me who challenges me.

CDF: And you were in a football family where you started playing?

A.C: My father was playing football when he was younger. [After] it's more like me in the playground at school. I always played football and that's what funneled me the most. When I played football, I was calm in class. My mother did not want me to play football. After a while, my father finally said yes and I was able to play football.

Anna Clérac at the duel with Julia Stierli, the Swiss captain during the semifinal of Euro U19 2016 in Slovakia

CDF: In the playgrounds, it is often the boys who play football. Was it difficult ... You were not impressed?

A.C: No, precisely, I was "fighting" on the ground. There might have been a few girls, two or three but we were not very much. After yes, I always played with the boys in the playground.

CDF: Afterwards, you arrived in Soyaux in 2011. When did you start thinking about the D1, at the highest level, to tell you that your passion could also become an ambition somewhere?

A.C: When I was at the pole of Tours I think. [At the time] I was playing with boys the goal was to play and score goals. It was a dream to go as a team in France but it was rather as we say, we see far but it will never happen. And then, when I came to Soyaux and I saw the D1 ... it makes you want. When finally I got my chance, I thought I wanted be there later.

CDF: On what aspect of your game do you feel that you have progressed with your visit to the Pôle espoir in Tours?

A.C: On the vision of the game, the tactics, [know] when to hit, or then go back and give back the ball to spin ...

CDF: Having a director at Tours Emilie Dos Santos, who is a former player from Soyaux and who has had some selections in the French team, does it help to have someone who already knows the way to go?

A.C: Emily, it's not someone who talked about her past. She told us about Soyaux and the players she knew but she did not talk too much about how she was in France. If she told us that when she played, she had "hatred" on the ground. But otherwise, she never spoke of her exploits, she never boasted. We took an example of her, we wanted to follow her a little. Everything she said, we listened seriously to progress and pass the course.

Anna Clérac during the trip to Essonne against Juvisy Photo: Nelson Fatagraf

CDF: And there you came out of the pole last year, so you also have your bac ...

A.C: This is my second year when I am no longer at the pole. It was in 2015 that I passed the bac.

CDF: And now you continue studying next to football?

A.C: I spend a Childhood CAP at a distance because at the same time I have a job nearby. I work in animation with children from 3 to 10 years in a center where there are several schools in and during the holidays too, it is a leisure center.

CDF: And in your center, there are little girls playing football?

A.C: Yes, there is one who plays football and who is in Soyaux

"When we won the Euro, it was magnificent"
CDF: Last season, you had a lot more playing time (19 games, including 11 starts). Is it the fact of having left the Pole Espoirs that allowed you somewhere better to join the team?

A.C: Already at the pole, I was a little younger so it was not easy to fit into the team. And then, he [Juan Paredes, the Soyaux coach] did not see me on any training except during the holidays when he saw me for a week. When I left the pole, he saw me every day and he knew what I was capable of and that they were my weaknesses. So he knew he could make me progress [during] the week. So he gave me a chance, and then he left me [in the team] and I'm happy.

CDF: This year on the beginning of the season, you are part of the incumbents and you evolve to the position of middle left. This is a position you have always played or have there been changes over time?

A.C: I have always played an offensive position. When I was with the boys, I played either middle left or in attack. In Soyaux it's the same, I play middle left but in full match, I can change with Laura Bourgouin or Allison Blais. I can pass middle left, go middle right, go into attack. We turn, it allows us to destabilize the defense. But yes, I prefer to play middle left as I am left, it's easy for me to be on my left foot.