This week, we took advantage of the winter break to talk to AS Nancy striker Marlyse Ngo Ndoumbouk. Currently top scorer of D2 with 21 goals in 11 games, the Cameroonian-born player talks about her career, her game philosophy, her disappointments but also her ambitions.


Hearts of Soccer - I wanted to come back with you on your journey, and so on your debut in Yaoundé, Cameroon ... How old was the first time you hit a ball?

Marlyse N'go Ndoumbouk - I started at the age of 4 with my big brother who is a footballer. My passion came through him, since every time he went to training or playing, I was with him. I followed him everywhere, I wore his crampons, and sometimes at home in the yard he made me play with him.

Now at the national level I started at 11 years old. I was playing a game with the boys and there was a coach from a women's team who was there and saw me. He came to ask me if I was already playing in a women's team, I told him no. He gave me his number and told me to ask my mother to call him, What I did. Then another time he saw me with my big brother, then he came home to explain to my mother that he wanted me to join his team.


CDF - Your first national title you win at 15 years. It's young.

Yes, it's young. But the talent there is no age to show it. And especially in Cameroon it does not happen like here [in France], where we start with boys, after there are training centers. You can start playing in the country much earlier.


"My dream was to play in the biggest women's football championship. "


CDF - Before you went to Germany, did you have other experiences abroad?

In 2008 I had an experience in the United States. It was a bit complex. I went there for tests that were conclusive, I even signed the contract and it was question that I do the preparation, because I went there during the holidays and the girls came back in August. So I did the training period in August. But it turned out that the club where I signed was one of the clubs that had a financial crisis. I came back to Cameroon but I wanted to go back [to the United States]. In the end, they ended up going bankrupt, there was no team, nothing at all. So that's where I left for Germany because two months after that I had a proposal [to play].


CDF - Germany precisely was your first years in the elite of a big European championship ...

It was so good ! Frankly, in the sense that my dream was to play in the biggest women's football championship. And at that time for me it was either Germany or the United States. Because the United States at the world level is really very strong, it's the best. So I dreamed of one or the other. It did not work for the United States, but when I had the proposal from Germany I was very very pleased.


CDF - You land in Germany at FF USV Jena (lena). What memories do you have of your seasons there?

I have a good first season. With the club we arrive in the final of the German Cup (in 2010 lost 1-0 against Duisburg) and I was not in a club renowned for the big winners. It was a very young club looking for its way and we did great things all together that year. After the end of the season I am injured and I had to operate meniscus. And, in the middle of the second season I change club to join SC Sand.


"My fulfillment and my well-being
advocate in front of the financier »


CDF - Why this choice to change clubs?

There were too many problems, club, staff. Even at the coaching level I do not even remember two years, we had three different ones. It was not that much anymore. Then it got tough ... My manager had a proposal in the middle of the season to change clubs, they offered me good things there [at SC Sand] so I jumped at the chance.


CDF - The priority for you is really to feel good in the club first of all?

Yeah ! For my part, my development and my well-being advocate before the financier. If I am in a place and I feel good, that I still have this passion to play football, to have fun, to feel good, I stay. After, the moment it changes, where I do not feel good psychologically, even if financially things are going very well I should have had a hard time staying. I really should have struggled to continue with the club, no matter which one.

CDF - Before arriving in France did you know the level of this championship?

At the level of France personally no. I saw a little TV, friends, teammates, we talked about it. But at that time I knew that the best championships were the United States and Germany.


CDF - What motivated you to try the experiment in France?

What motivated me was that I had family here. In Germany things were not that much anymore, I felt lonely ... I stayed three years in Germany, alone, it became more and more difficult and as I have a lot of family and friends in France I came into contact with a former manager of one of my cousins ​​and through him I arrived at FC Tours.


"It really affected me [not to be selected for selection]. "


CDF - It's bold, however, to leave the German Premier League for a D2 club, which will also be relegated to DH when you arrive in 2012?

Yes, but when we find ourselves in a configuration where we are not good, where we want to leave, we do not think about the best club. I absolutely wanted to leave and leave Germany and for me the goal was not to have the best club in France, my goal was to leave because psychologically I needed my family, my relatives. And, nothing could force me to stay there, not even because I had not found the best club in France.


CDF - A paying choice in the end, since after you continue your evolution at VGA Saint-Maur ...

Yes, but what made me want to leave Germany at any price is that I had a very difficult time. I was continually being shortlisted, and that year we were preparing the Olympics [London 2012 Olympics], and I was not picked up overnight. It really affected me. It put a big blow on my head. I would go so far as to say that it almost destroyed me. I did not want anything anymore .. I was disgusted.


CDF - That's why this need to change air for you?

Yes yes totally. It's even a lot more.


CDF - After this disillusionment, you were never called again in selection?

Never again!


CDF - It really was a hard decision to accept for you?

Yeah. Especially when you do not know why, I never had an explanation. It was really difficult because I was not expecting it and I had worked to go to these Olympics for once. It is an event not to be missed to live an experience like that with his national team. We can not dream better. So it disgusted me as I said I did not even want to play at a time, I just wanted to come back to my family.


CDF - In 2016 you will wear the colors of France at the Military World Cup (in Brittany).

The military team was like that. I arrived I said: "coach I want to play for you". After what happened was that I was not yet French, so I had to take the steps to have the French nationality and to be able to play with this military team. Fortunately behind that there were good people who did everything to make it happen on time and on the rules.


CDF - To play the Military World Cup with France, and win it, it helped you to overcome your frustration with the Cameroonian selection?

Yes totally because it's great to represent your nation. When you're here [on the ground], singing the national anthem is good. It makes the heart palpitate. And personally it shows that I made the right choice not to stop playing.


CDF - To go back to your club career, with the VGA Saint-Maur you go up in D1 for the 2015-2016 season, and in the first leg you will score 10 of the 13 goals scored by your team. These are beautiful statistics ...

It's true that when someone said to me, "How many goals do you have? When I answered, he said to me, "How many are you? And here I said penultimate, it was improbable. And when I was asked, "How much do you rank in the top scorer standings? I said third on the go phase. He said to me, "No, you're laughing! It's true that it's not bad as stats that (smiling).

After that, it's a state of mind. It is not because we are last in the team that there is no potential.

"I would not go so far as to say that it is a goal for me to replay the first division. "


CDF - Why did you leave VGA St-Maur?

The club was having a hard time, they wanted to change everything, the president, the coach. And it's true that in addition to the coach [Régis Mohar] I was attached to it. when I was in Tours it was he who approached me. He made me understand that I had too much potential to stay there, I followed him and he was right. It was a big brother and a gentleman who gave me a lot of advice. The season of the rise in D2 I do not know, I scored 45 goals (43 goals in 22 games), I do not even remember but it was incredible.

I had trouble integrating in my head "to stay in the team" without him being there. I told him live "you leave me I'm leaving. I am not staying ". After Nancy came to me in January and I jumped at the chance.


CDF - In Nancy you will still score a lot of goals, especially during the season in DH (Division of Honor), almost a hundred it seems to me?

I scored 95 goals in the league I think, in 18 games.

My goal is to win. Then frankly I do not ask myself any questions. It is true that technically I do not have to complain, at the template level too I have the power, and it's true that it helps. Especially since it's rare to find attackers of my "caliber" in quotation marks. Then, it's difficult or even improbable to find a player like me who plays DH. Most often they find themselves in the upper divisions.

After me, I arrived in Nancy with the objective of maintaining them [in D2], we were not able to do it, so it was my duty, our duty, to go back to D2.


CDF - You managed to go up, and you are currently 2nd at three points of Dijon. The goal is to play the climb this year?

No, the goal is the maintenance!


CDF - Yes, but you're on the right track ..

Yes, it's gone. And if it happens that one rises frankly it will be only a bonus.


CDF - As an individual, would you like to play again in D1?

(She hesitates a moment) I would not say no. Now for me it's not the absolute. I do not say to myself "I absolutely must play in D1". I am rather in the feeling of things. If you climb so much better, if you do not go up but I feel good where I am, that's fine too. I would not go so far as to say that it is a goal for me to replay the first division. In itself it is not something that intrigues me again, but it would not bother me to replay it either. I like challenges so it's not a problem, on the contrary.


CDF - In January you will resume with a match of Coupe de France against Fleury, a team of D1 precisely. How do you apprehend him?

I take matches the same way, my goal is to win regardless of the opponent, whether it is above or below us. Now you win is good, you lose, it's up to you to question yourself and see the aspects in which you flunked.


"Most often it's the difficulty you're facing that makes you excel. "


After, I think that I am one of the girls who do not stress anymore when it is necessary to play a D1. I have gone beyond that. But in any case we will do the same, we will do as we usually do. Go on the field, give yourself, determined, reckless, and if we have the opportunity to win we win. We do not neglect any aspect. Fleury is the first division, they are not there by chance, if they are in the first division is that they deserved so must take this game with great rigor and determination.

CDF - You have a fairly complete attacking profile. You hit, you dribble, you know how to make the right calls in the back of the defense or to cut at the first post, to score with a header. Do you still have areas where you can improve yourself or do you feel 100%?

I would say that I am not 100%, in my opinion it is difficult to be 100%. It is necessary all the time to raise its level of game. Personally I want to improve every day. Whether at the level of the strikes, the game of head, dribbling ... It is necessary all the time to surpass itself, to surpass itself. To be 100% we need self-improvement, and for that we also need to have a team in front that gives us the challenge, which requires us to have a reaction and to excel. If you do not have that you will do things a little in ease, simplicity. Most often it is the difficulty you face that makes you excel.


CDF - Are there no matches where you feel that the opponent is ordered to block you at all costs, that you are never in a position to hit?

Yes after that does not date from today. It dates since I played with Saint-Maur. I remember once saying to my coach, "If you do not have Marlyse, frankly you have nothing in your team. "But that's wrong, I do not do everything, I will not take the ball in my goals and go up the field dribbling to score.

After I've played with, and every time I meet a team, the main objective of the coach [opponent] is to block me, to prevent me from evolving. This is the tactic, it's normal the coach must block the opposing assets, it's the game. After preventing me from evolving it will be hard, very hard.


CDF - You'll be 33 years old in January, but you've already said that you see yourself playing well for a long time, until you're 40, why not ...

It's a way of speaking (she laughs). When I say 40 years it is in the sense that when we are passionate we stay in his passion. Now play, maybe not at the high level, but to have fun up to 40 years, 42 years why not. It will not be as competitive for sure, but I will stay in the environment I love and I will have fun.


CDF - Finally, next to football what do you do? Would you see yourself as a coach?

I intend to pass my diplomas to stay after my career in the world of football and bring my experience to others.

Yes why not. In Tours, Saint-Maur, yes, I trained the little ones. It's often an inevitable passage and it's true that I like it, to bring my experience. I like it and I evolve in what I always liked, from there, to transmit is not a problem.

Photo: Manu Cahu