It was a meeting with Jules-Jean Leplus five years ago that Jérémie Descamps (sports manager of the women's football section of Liévin) joined Templemars before switching to LOSC together. He is the link in this new women's section of Football. We wanted to have his feeling at this stage of the project started in 2015 by the LOSC. Interview.

Jeremie Descamps (Female LOSC Coach)
You are leader of group A in this truce. This was the basic goal of 2016 for you?
J.D .: No it was not the goal at all. We wanted to build an interesting group to play the top of the table but the climb is not an objective of established club, it was to continue in our momentum. The goal of the club was to work with young people and set up a formation worthy of the name at the LOSC level.

After missing out on the climb last season against Metz a club that had already experienced the D1, do you feel more armed and prepared this season?
J.D .: Yes we are more armed, a lot. After we did not miss the mark last year because the goal was to be in the top 6 to stay in D2. We achieved this goal so this year we are much more equipped to play the top of the table because the recruitment was targeted on last year. We managed to make a very interesting and very fast recruitment, then we could have the players we wanted to have so the recruitment was successful on our part. We knew we would start the season with a much higher group.

You had only one defeat at the beginning of the championship, it's against the Roche-Sur-Yon, a former resident of D1, it gave you a little bit later, for what can be expected in D1?
J.D .: Well, every game is difficult. We lost the match because La Roche played well and we were a little less well so ... We have big games, Arras in the first game, Saint-Maur just after. But it's true that La Roche gave us a very, very big confrontation. Did that set the tone? I do not know, because the level of D1 I have never experienced as a coach, I can not define it precisely, but it's true that it's a high level match and a very interesting match . Then it showed us all we had to do to win all the games and not forget the principles that had to be to be level in this division there.

Today, the D2 Feminine is played at 24 in two groups of 12 teams, what did you think of this reform?
J.D .: For small clubs, it's true that I thought it was going fast for this reform, it was done very quickly. For clubs in our region, who still deserved to be with us, I think Hénin-Beaumont for example, the green that had a good season too ... it goes quickly for these small clubs. After when we think more about clubs with greater possibilities, we say that it is a good reform, because the level of play is high, the teams are more homogeneous and are able to beat any team. The championship is much more interesting and much higher so that's a plus for us.

When Jules-Jean Leplus offered you the challenge of coaching this new women's section, did you immediately accept or hesitate? Compared to the time required to manage such a project.
J.D .: No no no I accepted directly, at the same time it was not a request, we put all this together so we wanted to continue together and then we would not build this project there without being able to continue. I absolutely wanted to continue this project, because it is a project that we built progressively both and then it was a great adventure to live, in a new context, out of curiosity it was interesting to live.

"An interesting project with values ​​that resemble me"

In the portrait drawn by LOSC when you became head of the team, we learn that you have always trained girls. These are values ​​that characterize you better, there is more proximity with this football there according to you?
J.D .: I always talk about values ​​in women's football, after I never coached in men's football. I have a lot of experience as a player because I had a career up to 38 years so it's very difficult to compare with women's football. There is something else in women's football, there are things that I like in the way of playing, during training, in the personal investment of girls that we find maybe not all the time in the male environment. After I speak without knowing because I never coached boys, but hey it's with my own experience as a player and what I could meet day by day. It's But for me there is still a difference in this investment in girls....

What makes you different from men's football to women's football? Compared to boys, girls do not necessarily run after money, but rather to surpass themselves. You say it's "the rigor and involvement of girls" that attracted you to this football.
J.D .: Let's say it surprises me, I got there I did not know the female world either, so I learned very slowly too. I knew about a section (Liévin) but as a coach I did not really know him. What surprises and what is very pleasant, it is the investment, the rigor that puts the girls in the work and then on the ground, in the matches, there is no calculation, it is that which is very interesting. After that it is not a question of money compared to boys or not, because the level in which I played there was not much extra money. It's a matter of investment and a different mentality can be.

If today you were in D1 (instead of Metz) you think you would have had the weapons to assert yourself without being in the relegation zone?
J.D .: Today with the team I have? I can not tell you, once again, I did not rub shoulders with the middle of the D1 Feminine so I see it, I live it as a spectator but I'm not able to tell you today if the team we currently could have competed with other clubs, really.

"The goal for LOSC in the short term is to have a team in D1."

When you see the other two promoted Bordeaux but especially Marseille who manages to hold against PSG 1-0, to score against OL, beat Juvisy or draw (FCGB) and Saint-Etienne, it gives you even more want to be there in D1?
J.D .: Well, let's say we get into the game gradually, obviously the goal for LOSC in the short term is to have a team in D1. So the faster it will come the better. Even if it is not the goal of this season, if the door opens we will take it, we will go, we will return. But yes it's true, we are very attracted by the high level and be with the LOSC in D1, it is true that it is something that would be very interesting.

Since last season the Ligue 1 clubs are putting more and more foot in D1, you who are a former player, and especially a passionate fan of women's football, you had to be more than delighted with this awareness?
J.D .: Yes, yes, yes that's fine. It's a double-edged sword, as I told you earlier, with small clubs and so on. We have ... bad ... not bad in the heart but I mean we see gradually down small clubs. Clubs that still have some experience, and some history in women's football, it's always sad but it's clear that seeing all these men's football clubs behind a women's team is auspicious . Anyway in my opinion in D1 in the very short term it will be practically only male clubs that will be there, because we must talk about budget, must speak of structure ... It is difficult for small clubs to compete facing these big clubs that arrive and develop a women's section in their enclosure.

In D2, there is the LOSC, Caen AG (which could be approached by the SM Caen), Lorient FC or Toulouse, Dijon which are worn by male clubs, one wonders if there is still room for " amateurism ", for clubs that are not worn by big names of male clubs. What is your feeling about this, you who were in a club unlike this current project and who has never known more than the D2?
J.D .: For the moment there is only amateurism in women's football so we can not talk professional, but it's true that here we are asking the question. Apart from the clubs can be like Juvisy, who have a history, a particular functioning and who have solid back ... I tell myself that the future will not always be all rosy for clubs that will not have strong clubs behind them male, professional. I think it's going to be more and more difficult. After, we never know.

"we start to be known, we are expected."

Moreover, when we look at the results of the LOSC, first of the group A in D2, qualified for the elite challenge in U19. Why do you stay so careful about your goals?
J.D .: We are careful because we know it's difficult. We have just had a very good first half of the season, but I already know that the second will be much more difficult, even very long because we start to be known, we are expected. Second reason is because we will play more outside, at home and against big teams (Saint-Maur, Rouen, La Roche, Arras) so we are very very careful, and then we has met very very good teams, it can switch to a few things, to a match. Are we going to be able to be at the same level all along the second part? This is the question we will ask ourselves. We will try to prepare girls to be but we are not 100% sure.

There is a big project behind the LOSC, besides the D2, the women's sections are represented in DH, U19 and U17, so it shows all the interest of the Lille club to get involved in women's football and to train his future players. It is important to you as a coach of the senior team?
J.D .: Oh yes of course, we know that even if you are in a professional football club, you have to be able to live with your pool [of players] and training is very important. So, yes, we are very important to that, and the main objective of this season, in any way that has been put forward by the LOSC, is really to build this training. And that was the goal of having national U19s absolutely. Continue to develop them, continue to work with educators, on the training family of the LOSC to be able to go just to recover these girls of high level, that will be put in place and then train within our recruitment, within our formation so that they can come play up there with us. Yes it is important for us.

Do you have U19s in your D2 group?
J.D .: At present, no, I have a group a little older, I do not have a U19 purely in my group. After we follow them [the U19]. The advantage now is to have U19 national so I think that with the development of the elite, divisions, it will be increasingly difficult to integrate young players in D2 or D1 because the level has become much higher. Before it was much easier to integrate them and I think there is still a margin, a step to go that will be more and more difficult. The national U19s are a good springboard, so you have to work on these players before you can gradually integrate them into the group. But it's a short-term goal.
You've been coaching Templemars for 3 seasons just before "rocking" so LOSC has decided to keep you for its women's section, how was this transition made?

JD: Easily, frankly very easily because we had the chance to work with exceptional people, like President Michel Seydoux, Jean-Michel Vandamme and Reynald Berghe ... All these people in LOSC are very professional people, but very close to the amateurs so it happened very easily. In addition to Jules-Jean we arrived with a serious project to propose, so they immediately noticed that things were done in serious ways at home so the amalgam was done very easily. And then we were left with a little freedom of work. We realize that finally Jules-Jean is a person who is able to manage a group of women like that and that he manages to put everything in place to develop the section.

You said in an interview at the LOSC microphone that you did not "expect to train the LOSC someday" what did you do when you first walked through the door of the LOSC?

J.D .: Well, what did it do to me the first time, I think, it's more the first meeting than crossing Luchin's door. It's the one with Jean-Michel Vandamme and then Reynald Berghe, who are two high-ranking people in the LOSC. It was particular to live. I came from the amateur world where I did not meet many people of this level, so the first approach was special. It was said, "we are discussing a concrete football project with great people Football". So it was this first meeting that marked me.

"My players are extraordinary"

Your players play for a pro club, but are not professional, so you have to worry about taking into account certain unavailabilities, agendas and imperatives of each, are you sometimes frustrated with this situation? You aspire to have players 100% available and active, concentrated only in the field, or it is much too soon complicated to put in place for the moment?

J.D .: Well I'm less and less frustrated we'll say. It's true that the first years at Templemars was very frustrating because I like working with a concrete group in training. I'm very much on the tactical concept, the offensive animations, and as long as you do not have his group in training, we can not work this kind of things. But I am less so, because the girls we kept at LOSC, they have more and more a profile to be detached from their work and / or their training at the FAC to be present at the training sessions. So I do not have much trouble this year on the presence in training but it's true that I still have it. It is clear that the fact of being amateur is not every day obvious. We can not work all the time with the whole group but this year I still have the great chance to have 99% of my group each time in training.

My players are extraordinary, I take a hat because this is also what makes me understand that women's football is still special because they are still kids who work all day, who go to the FAC all day and who are able to invest four times a week, who are able to leave two days on weekends. Here. Without being professional and gaining practically nothing, so for me it's really great and that's where I also put forward women's football because they have a mentality of play, effort and investment. When they invest, they are fully committed. It's very difficult to handle both.

Because most pro players are international, is this a possibility, which is very difficult to put in place?

J.D .: Yes it's very difficult, apart from federal contracts there are no other contracts in Women's Football. Already when we are in D2, we can not have more than 5 federal contracts so that means we can not have more than 5 players available at 100% for the club. So beside that, it's difficult especially for girls, because there are exams, there are periods of revisions, they ask those they invest less in training. So I guess it's complicated for them. The more we go up and the more we ask for the investment, but the problem is that it does not change the situation for them so much, so they stay in the same work situation but we ask them more requirements.

We have internationals, three Belgian, also international B like Rachel Saidi or Caroline La Villa and girls who have been international A, like Marine Dafeur, who had two selections. We have girls who have a level to be international in their country, we have a lot of potential on it!

So you have a fairly homogeneous group, who lives well together?

JD: Yes, it's a great chance for me, we managed to build a progressive group, with bases Templemars I want to say, because I'm happy it's that we still have to moment managed to keep players we had [at Templemars], even from the very beginning. So for me it is a great pride because these girls, they allow us to convey values ​​that we learned together and that is what makes the group grow well and for us it is important too.

You also say, and very aptly "we take pleasure but we do not have fun" is quite antagonistic in a sense, but quite logical, in accordance with the objectives of the club and the spirit of football that you want instigate to your players?

J.D .: Yes I make a big difference between friendliness and family [football], we're not here to have fun, we're here to have fun. There are things to build together, have fun by work, it's important yes. So even if we're not here to have fun, I hope we can enjoy training and games. There are requirements of work, driving, traveling on a football pitch that make you have to be rigorous with yourself and I am very demanding with girls.

Do you make it a point of honor to develop their minds in order to prepare them for those who are waiting for them in the future?

J.D .: This is a super important point, you know the mind is more and more difficult. This is the first year we have a group that is up there [leader] so to stay up there, we better be always focused, always be able to question. So the mental level you have to work a lot, in training you have to invest 100%. A week when we are a little less mentally in the investment, we feel right away at the weekend. So it's very difficult to play the bottom because I've already lived, but it's also very difficult to play the high table because mentally must always be there, must not lose 5%. The 5% or 10% that we lost at La Roche, here is maybe the working week, it may be the preparation of the match so you must always be 100% and it's very difficult to the girls and the coach to work on it.

"We will do everything to stay up there ... we will not hide it, we start to say why not us."

Finally last question you also say that your accession to the elite "it's not a dream ... the goal of LOSC will eventually be to have a team in D1" the goal will be achieved this season? But will the club be ready to commit to the long term once this goal is achieved?

J.D .: I'm not soothed (laughs) so I can not answer that, after we'll do everything to stay up there, we have 5 points ahead. In our head we know how we work at home with the group, we know that we will work match after match, we will not take the lead, we will always try to win the match after, prepare in the week to the next match and then if we manage to make a good second part of the season as the first, we will be there. Otherwise we will have had a good season and then we will work again to form a group with a different goal, but I know that this year we have no pressure on it. Now it is true that being first in the first half of the season, we will not hide it, we begin to say why not us.

I have no worries [on the club's commitment if he accesses the D1]. After, there the club changed direction [Michel Seydoux having sold the club Gerard Lopez] so certainly, but I did not follow the letter to the letter and what will happen really so we will see from that, what goals they will have for the women's section. After that I think I have no worries, from the moment we have a section that works independently, which is well managed by Jules-Jean and that there are results, I'm not worried about future of the women's section of the LOSC.

Photo: Nelson Fatagraf