In mid-September, she explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that she was not “Haunted” by Marinette Pichon’s record (81 goals in 112 national caps). A week later, Tuesday September 22, during qualifying for Euro 2022 against North Macedonia, Eugénie Le Sommer dethroned the icon, becoming the top scorer of the France team, with 82 goals in 171 selections .
The former number 9 of the Bleues, now 44 years old and who was the first professional French player to emigrate to the United States and make a living from her profession, was not mistaken: c ‘is the striker of Olympique Lyonnais (OL) who was going to steal the record from her, she predicted during a video interview with The team between the two players on the eve of the World Cup organized in France, in June 2019.
“As Eugenie is a girl and a player in which I identify myself, for me it is also a pride that it is her who makes him fall”, explained the former FCF striker from Juvisy. “When I arrived in the selection, my first objective was above all to stay there”, recalled, in a soft voice, Eugenie Le Sommer, whose ratio of goals per match (0.47) is however lower than that of her glorious elder (0.72).
This Tuesday, September 22, it is with a smile on her face, the letter “M” formed with her hands in tribute to her predecessor, that the 31-year-old young woman has entered this new line on an already well-supplied list. Because the striker is already the best finisher in the history of Olympique Lyonnais – 270 achievements in 314 matches -, and this summer, she also won a seventh Champions League with the Fenottes (“young Lyonnaises” in local slang, female equivalent of the Gones which describe the male team), to the detriment of the Germans of Wolfsburg (3-1).
Eugenie Le Sommer was one of OL’s European epics, which she joined in 2010. With her teammates Wendie Renard and Sarah Bouhaddi, they can boast of having won the most C1 titles, men and women confused. “There is no weariness. We always want to win ”, reassured the native of Grasse, at the end of the meeting. This is ” like a dream “, summarized on Twitter the young woman, whose passion for the round ball goes back to early childhood.
𝙇𝙄𝙆𝙀 𝙄𝙉 𝘼 𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙈 🤩🏆❤️💙 https://t.co/5JqOkvUTJW
“It was a moth, it crept everywhere”
This vocation, Eugénie Le Sommer takes it from her mother, herself a former player. Yet, she confided to The team in August, the latter was first shown “Reluctant” when her 4 year old daughter asked her to enroll her in a club. “Not that she refuses that I play football, but she feared mockery and the bad perception that women’s football had then. She paid for it herself. She was just afraid that I would live it badly, she wanted to protect me above all ”, explained the OL striker.
“I signed my first license at the age of 5. At the time, there were a lot fewer girls on the pitch than now. Until 13 years old, I was also the only one in my respective teams ”, she still told the regional newspaper West France, in 2009. Her parents tried to divert her from the lawns, encouraging her to find a future on the tatami mats with the help of judo. But after years of parallel practices, little Eugenie will completely abandon the kimono at the age of 12.
The childhood of Eugénie Le Sommer and her eight brothers and sisters was punctuated by the moves linked to the changes of their policeman father. It was finally in Brittany, more exactly in Morbihan, in Ploemeur, that she made her debut with crampons on her feet. Interviewed by France 3 Bretagne, Robert Muscat, his former educator at AS Guermeur, from 1998 to 2004, remembers a child at “Lightning start”, “Difficult to mark”. “It was a moth, it crept everywhere”, he remembers. She was “Very good on both feet and head, even if she was small” (1.61 meters).
When she was 14, mixed teams were no longer allowed, she left the club for FC Lorient, which launched its U15 women’s team, registered in a boys’ championship. “I couldn’t even tell you how many goals she finished with. She was above “blows his teammate Amandine Sevin at the time. For the latter, there was then no doubt: “In her head, it was clear, she wanted to become professional. “
Eugénie Le Sommer took the plunge in 2007, joining Saint-Brieuc in D1. And, in her third season (2009-2010), she finished best player and top scorer in the championship: 19 achievements in 22 games. That’s when she caught the eye of OL and Paris-Saint-Germain… She preferred the Rhone side to that of the capital. The rest is now known.
“She will become a star! “
Shy by nature, the young woman claims to have gained confidence over the years: ” Football (…) helped me to flourish and assert my personality. When I was little, I had trouble speaking, but when we play we have to communicate with others, even if it takes effort. “” In life, when she has something to say, she tries to say it (…). He is a fairly simple person, very pleasant in a collective. We dream of playing with teammates like that and sharing moments ”, summarized, in 2015, the defender Wendie Renard, then captain of the tricolor formation, at the FootMercato site.
Questioned by the coach of the France team, Corinne Diacre, after the elimination of the Bleues in the quarter-finals of the World Cup last year, Eugenie Le Sommer did not hesitate to express his dissatisfaction . And, today, if the tension has eased between the two women, the attacker supported in a press conference the decision “Courageous” the goalkeeper of OL, Sarah Bouhaddi, not to return to the national team as long as Corinne Deacon is in office.
Record of national goals, European crown with her club and even marriage in August with her longtime companion, Florian Dariel… The year 2020 will have been one of the best for the player. Enough to prove his grandfather right, who, according to the magazine Life, when he learned that his granddaughter was born on May 18, 1989, allegedly indulged in the following prophecy: “She was born during the Cannes Film Festival, she will become a star! “
But no question for the young woman to rest on her laurels. Because, although the best scorer in the history of the Blue, she has not yet brought a trophy with the national team. “It’s difficult, because I won everything in a club and, conversely, in the France team, nothing at all…”, notes the person concerned. So, as she says herself: “From now on, the most important thing is the victory, to qualify for the Euro. “
