This season, Sakina Karchaoui has taken an extra dimension both in club with Montpellier and by its now regular selections in the French team. Her ball-to-foot skills, between blistering acceleration and swaying dribbling, have not gone unnoticed and have earned her the nomination for the second consecutive season to the UNFP trophies in the "best hope of the female D1" category.


Football Hearts - Do you care about this D1 hope tag? French football?


Sakina Karchaoui - I am a young player, who is in selection and who plays in club. There are many players with the same status as me so that could enter the category of best hope. After that I hope I will go all the way and win this trophy because it will always be good.


CDF - It feels like it's okay with the public noticing you in the field. I think of the Coupe de France game you played at Domont in the Paris region where some of the people at the stadium have discovered, encouragement, a little admiration.


S.K - Yes, I notice it too, even via social networks so it's always nice to see so many people following us.


"I wanted this status of owner in Montpellier"


CDF - This is your third season in D1, you talked about the difficulty of imposing yourself at the beginning because of injuries. What was the most difficult obstacle to overcome in Montpellier?


S.K - When you arrive with a youth status, I was 17, it's always good to integrate training with the D1. After you must always want more and so I wanted this status holder in Montpellier Hérault. After it's hard, everyone goes through it, you have to fight in training, do not let go and you have to prove the maximum.


After I had injuries, there was the American [Genessee Daughetee] who played at my post in Montpellier and she was older than me. So it's true that to arrive and prove as a young person is difficult. And then after that, the workouts I did not let go and the work ended up paying.


CDF - When we talk about your current success, you insist on the need to continue working ...


S.K - I have a mentality where for me nothing is acquired, everything can change from one day to the next so never rest on its laurels. Me, I have a saying: "success comes with work" and after I knew the selection with the A so everything changed at the same time. It's good to take.


CDF - You played defensive midfielder, number 10, middle left and side. Do you think that your positioning on the field can still evolve over time? Attacking? Central defender?


S.K - No, no central defender (laughs). I started soccer playing 6 after I climbed in 10 and ended up on the side. After today's side we bring a lot before so it's a job that I like. If I come to evolve later, I will surely go up a notch and it will be more in my position.


"You must defend and then attack you"


CDF - Lateral it is your post, but it is true that you have this quality to be able to strike, to dribble, to make differences ball with the foot. Do the coaches give you instructions on that?


S.K - Yes, of course. Sometimes, I tend to be thrown forward and have often been told, "when you play behind, you have to defend and then attack you". After that, I think I'm assimilating more and more that aspect. And then after, I think it will distort me if I were told not to dribble, not to go up, not to split or whatever. I think it will not be me in the end.


I'm given limits defensively, after attack, they know that I'm doing. I think that tactically, I would have to progress on that and anyway we only progress. If you regress, there is a problem.


CDF - This season, after the injury of Sofia Jakobsson, there were a lot of questions around Montpellier, how the team would react. What made you go back on the end of the season?


S.K - She's a great player. After her injury, we were extremely disappointed, but [then] it was the mental strength and the strength of the team that made us overcome that. And in Montpellier, there are other attackers, there was [Laëtitia] Tonazzi who was injured, it was a very good support. Now, it's sad to say but there are other attackers like Valerie Gauvin, Stina Blackstenius, Clarisse Le Bihan and Janice [Cayman] who bring a lot in the attack and we managed to fill this gap .

"Build our experience"


CDF - And with Marie-Charlotte Léger, Lindsay Thomas, we talk about young players. You are a lot of young players in the team and you have taken your responsibilities somewhere.


S.K - Yes, and we too must build ourselves and our experience but they have brought us a lot, and it is true that Sofia, I wish her a good recovery once again and that she will come back even stronger.


CDF - You are currently second at two rounds, so potentially qualified in the Champions League. Europe, can we start talking about it when it's still too early?


S.K - Me personally, I will not talk about it. I will not venture until both matches have been made. We hope the best, we hope to finally go to this Champions League that perhaps, we deserved throughout the year.


CDF - In 2010, you were with the young people of Montpellier but did you attend at the time the European Cup matches of Montpellier, especially against Bayern?


S.K - Yes, at the time I think I was fifteen. And our team, we had to collect balls so I remember it very well. After it's true that it was huge, it was at La Mosson and it's huge matches, and it's experiences we do not forget. And we hope that now it's up to us to do it.


"At first I really did not want to [play in a club]"


CDF - Montpellier is your training club but you are from Bouches-du-Rhône. Is it in your entourage, friends, you are encouraged to come to play OM?


S.K - No, not especially. After OM it's a good team and they had a very good season. But here I am in Montpellier since young [at 13 years], so I did not even ask this question. It's sure that Marseille is my hometown, and I do not forget where I come from, but if I can do the Champions League with Montpellier it would be great.


CDF - To talk about your beginnings, we read that your first steps in the club, it was through the father of your best friend who you saw playing football and who offered to your parents to register in a club...


S.K - Yes that's right, I knew him well, it was like my second dad. So after, he asked me to go club and it was through him that I left.


CDF - Did you think then that you could play football in a club?


S.K - No, not at all. At first I really did not want to. It was not my goal to register. I loved after school, go down with the boys and then my best friend, go play football down in the neighborhood. And then, he went to see my father and ask if I could do football, with my brother of course. And then, I was registered in Miramas and I went to play there. The boys I played with, I was at school with them, in the same college. It was good and I keep that good memories.

"Experiences like that, I would like plenty of them. "


CDF - To speak about the Team of France which was one of your successes these last months, one wanted to return on two episodes that you lived. The first is this game against New Zealand in Salvador de Bahia for the J.O and on TV, every time you touched the ball, we heard vivas in the stadium. Can you tell us how you experienced it on the ground?


S.K - In Brazil, against New Zealand, there was a lot of public and already when you play in a stadium full of people, it's always fun. Whether he is against us or with us. After sure, when the public is with us, it's always a plus. And then after when I was in the match, I heard some noise when I touched the ball, but I did not think it was really relative to me.

And then at the end of the match, a lot of people said to me: "You saw, you heard, every time you touched the ball, it screamed and everything". I had not noticed, when I play, I'm in a bubble and concentrated at 100%, I heard but without understanding it. And then after when I was told that, it made me very happy.


CDF - The second, less happy, is during the World Cup U20 with this semi-final against Japan. You have to go out after a concussion and then stop playing the final. How is it going for you at this time?


S.K - Already, when I do the head trauma, it's true that I was elsewhere, I lost consciousness, I went to the hospital. After that was the docs that had to make the decision, I could not oppose it while it was a final. It was something to live, it was huge, maybe once in a lifetime, we do not know.


And it's true that it was a shock for me, whether mentally or physically. After, I was thoroughly behind them in the final, I spoke in the locker room to motivate them and unfortunately we lose. After, when you feel helpless ... It's even worse, I think, to feel helpless than to be on the ground and play.


CDF - This U20 World Cup, despite this episode, do you consider it a good experience?


S.K - Yes, it's an unforgettable experience. Frankly it was great. Experiences like that, I would like plenty.


"[With Amel] we give each other little tips between us"


CDF - Last aspect on the France team, one of the interesting things that we have seen in recent months is your left side association with Amel Majri who is a player who is a little in the same register as you.


S.K - It's true that Amel and I have the same profile, everyone tells us. After, it's a person with whom I get along great outside and on the field and getting along very well outside, it allows us even more to "show" us in the field .


We have a lot of communication between her and me and here we give each other little details, in the match or when she says to me: «when I do that, it means that I'm going to do that» or «when you do that, me that means I have to do that. " I play behind her and so I have to talk to her a lot, and that's what goes on [and] it's going really well.


Photo: mhscfoot.com