Before the resumption of the D1 this weekend, meeting with Teninsoun Sissoko, central defender Fleury. A player who constantly seeks to release serenity on the field, both in his defensive interventions than when participating in the construction of the game of his team. A calm that the club of Essonne will need Sunday against Paris Saint-Germain, but also in the quest for his first points this season.


Hearts of Foot - We will start with the least fun and this number to talk about this beginning of the season with Fleury. Zero, not yet taken points since the resumption of the championship. What look do you have on these first games and this difficulty in taking points?


Teninsoun Sissoko - This early season is a lot of frustration. It's a team full of talent but that does not necessarily happen. We have a good game. I think that with all the news that we had, we managed to create a real group. We got to know each other, and it feels like game to match. But we can not win, it's the frustration of the moment. I think once we get started, we can do a lot of good things.


"Our first quality is the ground game,
the sequence of passes »


CDF - Does this ambition to want to play well, it is not sometimes difficult to assume when the first objective is the maintenance and that there is this need to go and tear match points in match?


T.S - Not necessarily, because we are a team that likes to play ball. Our first quality is the ground game, the sequence of passes, so we play with our qualities. After, it is true that sometimes, on some matches, we indulged too much and we [found] to lose at the last minute. Each time, it's the fact that we want to go for this victory, but as I've been told many times, sometimes when we do not know how to win, we must know not to lose.


CDF - You have just played four matches, each time lost on a goal of difference, the last two in stoppage time. What is your assessment of what happened with each time this little goal that you escape to take points?


TS - The assessment that has been made is that in the construction of the game, we were good, we knew to produce the game. The problem was that in the last meters, [we were] missing this success, we were missing the last pass. Arrived in the last thirty meters, we lacked clarity to be able to score and I think that is what we lack. We certainly produce beautiful game, but we can not score. And then afterwards, it is true that at a certain moment, when we do not manage to score, we suffer a little more, and when we undergo, we take goals.


"We had to start by anchoring this rigor"


CDF - When we look at this team Fleury, we see a young team, which discovers the D1, with in its midst experienced players, like yourself, and a big experience in this championship. What does it mean for the construction to have this situation with a young team but many players with already a lot of experience?


T. - We arrived, 7/6 [players this summer] in a team that had not known the D1, which had no experience of high level. So already, we had to start by anchoring this rigor [and] show the girls what was the high-level. And that, some have not assimilated immediately. It was difficult to say that in D1, we had to make many more concessions, we had to be much more rigorous. At first, for girls it was a pleasure. But there, at the level where we are, certainly it is a pleasure, but it is much more. We must really put this rigor, to hoist us, even more, to the high level. That's the most important thing we had to bring.


CDF - At the beginning of the season, we saw a team that assembled as we went. You came back from injury, Salma Amani then suspended, Daphne Corboz joined the team recently. Would you say that this "assembly" phase of the group is now over?


T.S - Yes, plainly. I think it's good to find everyone, the entire staff. It is true that our absences were felt on the first matches. I think that there, we start to cross a course, the team is complete, we know each other better and it just lacks this bit of luck to be able to win us and from here everything will start.


"The key word was to have fun"


CDF - Before the resumption of the championship this weekend, there was the international truce, and for you a selection in team of France B. What does it represent for you this convocation to Clairefontaine and you end up with the France B team?

T.S - Already, it is a pride to wear the blue jersey. It is also a reward, both personal and collective. Of course, we do not have the results, but it proves that even if we do not have the results, we can do good things and we have shown good things. It's always a pride for me and for the club also these selections.


CDF - During this course, you had a match against VGA Saint-Maur. What were the coach's demands in the field?


T. - He especially wanted us to play the ball, that we project quickly enough forward, that we are in the duels, and especially the key word, it was to have fun.

"By my post, we are obliged
to release a certain serenity "



CDF - To talk about your position on the field, you play in central defense. And if we had to use a word to define you, we could say that it is the serenity, whether in your defensive interventions or in your first raises, where you feel that you are looking to calm the game as soon as possible. Is it okay for you as a qualifier?


T. - Absolutely. When I arrived [at Fleury], I was asked: "How do you define yourself? Someone who is very hard on the person or quiet force? And I was more defined by the "quiet force". After, by my post, one is obliged to release a certain serenity. Certainly, there is the guard behind us, but after that it's from us that everything starts. If we, we release the fear, necessarily it will be felt on the girls around us and in the end we will succeed in doing nothing.


CDF - Sometimes, central defenders are criticized for just not being hard enough on the opponent, not enough contact. Are these remarks that you heard from your coaches or around you?


T.S - Yes, clearly. In Saint-Etienne, that's what I was criticized, not to be hard on the person but to want to always stand out clean. I have been criticized, often, for not clearing and it is true that sometimes we can not always come out clean. Of course, it's not good football, but sometimes you have to know how to clear it. It was difficult to hear and anchor it in me, but it's something important. In any case, from my size, I have always been told that it is important that I be there, present, and that no one passes.


CDF - At the same time, we can see that you are able to do it. Especially during the match against Lille, you managed to hold well Ouleye Sarr, who is today in team France A. It was also one of the most complicated matches since the beginning of the season?


T. - Yes, it was a special instruction from the coach. He said to me, "I do not want to see her." I listened to his instructions and tried to do the best. It is true that on that match, I held it pretty well. It did not smile [Fleury lost the match 2-1], but it was the number one danger of Lille and it is true that because of this, we did not see much in the match.


"I ended up with the armband at 18"


CDF - In your course, there is a club to which you give a special place. It's Le Mans, a club where you started in D2 and D1. Can you tell us about these years spent with the club of Sarthe?


T.S - This is my training club. This club has taught me everything, especially by my coach Xavier Aubert. He has been very hard on me, which is why I have a mental strength today. [At the time] I was in foster care, Martine and Gaston Aubert who welcomed me at home, it was like my second parents. They made me grow, they brought me everything and I was in the best conditions to reach the highest level. It was my best years in high school. Frankly, I had a great time.

CDF - With Le Mans, you had notably experienced a rise in D1. So, even if the experience ended with a descent at the end of the season, are these moments in which you draw today to help you, in what awaits you with Fleury?


T.S - Yes, plus it was complicated because our executives dropped during the season. So the coach relied on young people, including me, I ended up with the armband at 18. Already, I had, in inverted commas, enormous responsibilities on my shoulders, and it's true that it has made me grow enormously too, as a woman, as a leader. As I said before, this year, we will have to go beyond ourselves. With Le Mans, unfortunately, we did not keep up, but we went to the end and we gave the best of ourselves.


"It's something that remains to me
still across the throat »


CDF - The other important club in your career is Saint-Étienne. And when we talk about your stay at Les Vertes, we can not help but talk about the end and the descent last season. At the beginning of the season, we had the impression that the team could legitimately have ambitions. How to explain what happened?


T.S - It's true that when we mention Sainté, I always have trouble telling me that we've come down. Frankly, it's something I still have in my throat. It's hard to say that, but I think the extra-sportsman has eaten the sportsman. And we, we did not know how to override. Maybe unconsciously.

We thought it was the most important terrain but, unconsciously, there was always that little thing that made it impossible. We had a very good start to the season, and from the moment when he started to have problems with the fields here and there, there are girls who are out of their concentration because they were too impacted by these facts.

I think that's where, too, we did not manage. We should have focused only on the athlete, leaving us out of it, despite the problems with the leaders and coaches, and we, leaving ourselves in our little bubble. I think that the non-athlete has taken over. Afterwards, I do not blame the extra sports because we were on the ground and we too, we have our share of responsibility also on this descent.


CDF - Another team you went through, in youth, is your next opponent in the league: PSG ...


T.S - I was in U13 at PSG. I keep plenty of memories. I come from the Paris region, Aubervilliers, and at that time, the problem was that my brothers did not have the permit. It was difficult to go back and forth, so I did a year and after I went to Le Mans. That's why I could not continue my adventure at PSG.


CDF - Does this brief passage make this match a bit special for you or not necessarily?


T.S - Of course playing PSG, whatever [our] course, it has a particular flavor because it is a big championship and we always want to show up in front of these teams. Especially as a Parisian. After, no, I was young, so that's what ...