Arriving at Soyaux this season, the Yvelinin Pamela Babinga has experienced a rather dazzling ascent, atypical to the elite of Football. Taking a gold medal against Brazil last summer at the Military World Cup, which was played in Britain. A success that will lift her up, in D1 Feminine. From French blue to sojaldic blue. Interview of a discreet player, who has proven herself in the high level and who knows what she wants.

To begin, I saw that you started at FC Mantois, and that you played in D2 at 24 with Aurillac? You're from the Yvelines, but you went down to Auvergne to play D2? In addition it is in Aurillac where you will explode with these 15 goals in 21 games, and being titular. What can you tell us about this step of your career?
P.B. - Yes, that's it [at FC Mantois then at Aurillac]. Yes, yes, you have to try it (laughs).

Well it was a very complicated season at the beginning, because we had the death of our coach in the first game of our championship in Dijon. So it was difficult, we were a little lost. Although it was only two months since I was there, we still had our bearings with him and on top of that he had hosted us when we arrived, the time we find an apartment so it was quite complicated [to live] ... But after we were able to remain welded between us girls and then the club also supported us a lot. When we needed to talk with them, they were there for us. And I think that being solidarity like that, it allowed us to make a good season [with Aurillac].

Do you say in an interview that you did not expect to score as many goals with Aurillac [D2]? As an attacker, are you more lonely when you score or are you more team play?

P.B. - That's it. I am a player coming out of the DH so the D2 is a level above and we know that there is still a gap, so I did not expect to score as many goals and explode like that the last year actually.
It depends on the matches in fact, in some I took the ball and I was going to score and in others, I counted on my teammates, on centers, passes in withdrawal to score. It's the feeling, how I feel it actually. If I feel it, I take the ball and I go and if I do not feel well I prefer to play with my teammates.

How did you manage to be detected by Soyaux?
P. - Well, I actually have an agent so they contacted him. I think they got to know me about the Military World Cup and apparently they were also watching D2 games. [But the success in Blue] it was a plus actually [to have my place with Soyaux].

"I quickly integrated the game of the team"

Because at the beginning of the season, we contacted the Soyaux coach, Nicolas Goursat, who said that about you: "She has had a very encouraging season [in D2 with Aurillac], she is a fast-moving forward, who has skills to the goal that we did not necessarily have in Soyaux, that can bring an added value ". So all that is right now?

P.B. - Yes ... After I work for, because I think I quickly adapted to the D1 and I did not think I could adapt so much like that. But I could quickly set the pace, I quickly integrated the game of the team, and they also saw the abilities that I had so we managed on the month of preparation to get along in the game and then over the season, it works well [between all of us].

So as you said it's your first season in the elite. How did your adaptation fit into the team? The level, the training? There you are 6 goals, which makes you the second best scorer after Laura Bourgouin. I know you have to form a strong pair together, how are you doing?
P.B. - Baaah it was, the group welcomed me very well, the coach, the staff and the leaders around too. They put me in trust ... They put me in trust because I doubted to actually have the level of the D1. But everyone around me was saying "you can play D1, widely" but I did not believe it. So they reassured me about that and over time thanks to the staff, the players I gained confidence in myself and what did it do.
Well, it's going really well [with Laura]. After we played together in the Military World Cup so we know each other pretty much we'll say. We get to agree on the field, we make good passes. After all, what's going on?

Speaking of the Military World Cup, it was the most followed event on Soccer Hearts, reaching nearly 300,000 people on Facebook. It was an intense moment for you?

P.B. - Well, it's a crazy event. Military World Cup and in addition it happens in France, what more.

To come back to you, you are a player who likes to play well on long balloons, you have a certain ease in front of the goal, you are agile, with a good relaxation but you are stealthy enough, that is to say that on a field we do not really see you and it makes you a player that you do not necessarily expect so much that you take everyone else. Does this description characterize you according to you?
P.B. - Well yes ... I think. Thank you (laughs). In fact I am the same in the field as in everyday life. I am very reserved but when it is necessary to explode, I explode and do not necessarily hear me come but it is a strong point. After that, it can also put the team in trouble, when I have to go down again to press or help in defense. It's a bit of both I would say.

Well then we can not interview you without talking about the Military World Cup in a little more detail. This is without a doubt the event that will mark your journey. In addition you are a passer and scorer in the final. How did you live it?
P.B. - This is a huge event, because who thought I would do the Military World Cup? In any case not me. And the fact that I was called to do it, it made me very happy. Defending the colors of his country, wearing this shirt [Blue] is a real pride. After we were called because we were trusted and we have qualities. We showed them on the field and we won the World Cup.

When one is attacking it is a little on either everything rests, especially the victory, how do you manage when it does not necessarily come, when there are times when you are not necessarily decisive?
P.B. - Well, as I said, I play the feeling. After I know it happens to miss opportunities in front of goal, but I know that behind me the support of my teammates. I will miss a goal, they will not blame me, sink or moan. They will rather encourage me, "you missed that one but the next it will be in you do not worry". They will push me, so as not to give up, raise my head and continue to make efforts to try to score other goals. This is a very very strong point that we have with the team, Soyaux and frankly it's good to have their support, like that, when we have difficult moments.

In the Military World Cup you played against Cameroon, Canada and the Netherlands. Where are you from? There I saw yesterday that the women's team Congo was out of the FIFA rankings "due to prolonged inactivity". Is it sad to say that women's football is neglected in its home country?
P.B. - I am Congolese. It's sad, after all it would have been good [to have a development of women's football], it could have given some visibility to the country and make it progress a little more. But after it is difficult there, at the government level among others, it is quite difficult for girls to play football. But it's a pity.

To talk about the team Soyaux, I noticed that you were a fairly homogeneous team, even if there are some players who stand out. But as against Henin, did not you get stepped on?
P.B. - We knew that the game in Henin was going to be very difficult, because we knew we were expected, a D1 against a DH [even if it's an old D1]. It's nice to be a DH on paper, I think they have the level D2, or even D1. So, I think the goal we got pretty quickly it rang, but we said "we had a flutter, we were not concentrated the first 30 seconds, ok, we try to resume and give everything [to return] ". After it's not like we had not played on the field, we had a lot of opportunities in front of their goal, but the success she was not really with us that day. It's a shame, it's the only day we did not have to [lose] and then it fell on us. We tried to do with it, but it's true that it was very difficult to accept this defeat.

I asked one of your teammates in Soyaux, Anna Clérac to describe you and that's what she basically says about you: "She is very fast, and scored decisive goals this year especially against Marseille. Outside the field, she's a very discreet girl. " What do you have to say? Are you well integrated in the team?

P.B. - Yes that's right, that's it (laughs) that's exactly it. I am integrated [Soyaux] we are there we laugh, we discuss but it is true that I am quite reserved.

Okay, because I know that Anna Clerac, it's about this personality too, to be on the reserve, a little behind. You as you have more years in football we will say, I do not know if you try to give a little experience to these players to assert themselves a little more, in the field?

P. - (laughs) Yes after Anna she is super well integrated in the group. It is true that she is also super discreet but when she is there, we discuss together is not a discussion "questions / answers". I think that with age it will be released a little more. After me I'm a little discreet, it's my first year in D1, I had the explosion in D2, I made the World Cup military, I was pre-selected in France B team. It's a whole, after I come down little by little [from my cloud]. But I think that if I do another season in D1 with Soyaux, I'll let go. It's time to acclimatize to the environment D1, to think about integrating well into the team. I'm more discreet in my corner to not take the big head, to make the star, because I'm not at all one. To say I'm here, I did that, it's not me at all.

So I also saw that you wanted to become a coach? Was playing soccer mainly to have a knowledge of the field for you?
P.B. - Yes (laughs) [I want to become a coach]. At the base it was more pleasure. I played down my neighborhood with my older brothers, with friends and over the years they saw that I had abilities and they pushed me to join the team next to my home, which was the FC Mantois. So, my brothers spoke with my parents, me too and they understood that it was football and nothing else. The more years passed and the more I thought that I had to go through a course, and try to go higher. But as I was studying nearby, I could not, but when I finished, my agent contacted me because we have a common knowledge. He heard a lot about me and this knowledge gave him my contact. He came to see me play in the Coupe des Yvelines final and discussed it at that time. It's done like that, by the way and as he had contacts in Aurillac, I went there.

There I pass my diplomas little by little. I have already validated the first certified and here I will spend the next two modules to have one U13 / U15. At first I was really into it but with the football that takes a lot of time, I spend it when I have a little availability.

The seasons are more and more trying, Soyaux is at a decisive moment in its history, especially with the rise of the big guys in D1. Did you know the club a bit before being recruited?
P.B. - I did not know [the club] but I knew him when I was at the Military World Cup with Melissa Godart who spoke to me about Soyaux. That's when I started to know [the history of] this club and my agent told me about it too. I wondered if it was a coincidence ... I saw that there were great players who had been there and I had a very good relationship with the President, so it was done gradually .

When you talk about a great player, can you talk about Corinne Deacon? Can it also be a model for you, since she was a player before being a coach?
P.B. - That's it. (laughs) I missed it, but we often saw it in the stands on Sunday supporting us. Yes quite and integrate the biggest teams, like the France team Why not one day. But yes after I would have liked to know her as a coach or player ... but the fact that she is in the stands to encourage us, and we can discuss with her at the end of the games, it is a beautiful thing already.

If you have to remember a match since your start of the season, what would it be?

P.B. - The match against Guingamp I think (win 0-1). This is the one where we were from the first to the last minute, I would not blameless but we were present in the duels, we even managed to win this game there so frankly I think it's the match reference. We were snarling from beginning to end, and we were united in this meeting.

Okay, because it's recent, I thought you were going to talk to me about the match against OM, with your victory (2-0) and the goal that you put?

P.B. - Hum not even because for me personally, it was a team I already knew, since I played against them last year with Aurillac [in D2]. When I came back to the field, I saw some heads break down because they know me too, so that's it.

Today you are 7th, it is a pretty good place with as many victories, as draws as defeats, 5 each time. Your failure against Henin that broke you a little?
P.B. - We had a start, after that is the schedule, but I would not say easy at all. We meet the big ones from the beginning so it was complicated, because we found ourselves at the bottom of the table while the other teams took points. There was the integration of the news too, it took time, over the matches, but we climbed crescendo suddenly. We managed to reach the top 5 and after Hénin's match I think we stayed in the lead I think when we played Rodez. It happened in the first half, we were not there at all, we were jostled in the duels. We got back at half-time and we get back to 3-2. I think if we had played the game from start to finish, it would have been different. But that's okay, we're coming back little by little and I hope we'll get a draw against Paris this weekend.

Exactly, how do you see this match against PSG? I know you're a fan of this club. In the first leg, PSG won 2-0 at home. There they have just played in the Champions League on Wednesday so either they will be tired, or she will want to regain confidence after their defeat against Bayern, so will have to go thoroughly from the beginning of your side?
P.B. - That's it, I think it will be up to us to set the pace right from the start, because they lost to Marseille and the Champions League, so they come back and they will be tired. We will have to show them that we are not there to lose in clear and that we will do our utmost to try to score at least one goal or to hold the draw.

How do you see the rest of your season? Because you still have big games to play and a late game too.

P.B. - Yes, that's it. So, we go together, we meet Paris this weekend and then it's Juvisy [home] and after that it's our late match against Saint-Etienne. Afterwards, it's up to us to make sure to hang these big teams and not make the same mistakes we made at the beginning of the season. We will give it all, we work for training so there's no reason for us not to do it.

Pictures: Manu Cahu