“For peace, Corinne Diacre never hesitates to go to war”. This is how the newspaper Le Monde opens a report about the French national team manager. The 47-year-old has overcome France’s championship ghost and taken the team to their first semi-final – and without two of the country’s biggest stars. They have fallen out of favor with Diacre, and they are far from the only ones. Wrecked captain It made big headlines when the captain for several years, Amandine Henry, and the all-time leading French player, Eugénie Le Sommer, were left out of Diacre’s EC squad. It was especially the scrapping of the captain that made no sense, at least from a sporting perspective. A week earlier, Henry had scored an over-the-top goal in the Champions League final for Lyon and was named the final’s best player. IN CONFLICT: Amandine Henry (tv) was captain of France in the 2019 World Cup, but was dropped from the team shortly afterwards. Photo: ERIC GAILLARD / Reuters Neither she, French journalists nor experts bought the explanation. – Henry is among the world’s best midfielders and should have been signed to the French team, but that is impossible because of the quarrel between them, says Carine Galli to news. She follows the national team closely and is a TV host and football reporter for the French TV channel L’Équipe. The quarrel she is referring to is well known in her home country. Because during the World Cup in 2019 there was a crisis atmosphere in the French team, and later the captain decided to tell why. – I cried in the room With final ambitions, the WC at home was a big disappointment for the French team. Already in the quarter-finals, against the USA, things went wrong for Diacre and her chosen ones. But it wasn’t just on the pitch that there was disharmony. Within the team, strong tensions had built up between the players and Diacre. The main problem must have been communication. The players think the coach was too harsh and direct, which Henry raised with football president Noël Le Graët. At the next national team meeting came the shocking news that the captain had been left out. Henry felt punished for speaking to the president, while Diacre, for his part, said the wrecking was purely based on sporting performance. Then it spilled over to Henry, who decided to go to the media and tell what it had really been like under Diacre’s leadership in the World Cup. – I saw girls crying in the room. I cried in the room too, because I wanted to experience the World Cup, but it was just chaos, Henry said in an interview with Canal +. STANDING TOGETHER: Sarah Bouhaddi (tv) and Amandine Henry have both made critical statements about the French national team manager. Photo: GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP Profiles such as Le Sommer and goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi supported the captain. Bouhaddi, who had been the first choice between the bars in the World Cup, went all out and decided to retire from the national team as long as Diacre was in the manager’s chair. – Winning a title with this coach seems impossible to me, said Bouhaddi. Diacre did not allow himself to be broken by the massive criticism from his own players. – I still stand and have the support of the president. I have heard what some say. This is a problem we have to solve, but my main focus is the team and the next game, was her response. Get reviewed in Renard’s autobiography But the list of controversies does not stop there. Because ever since Diacre took over the job in 2017, there has been a storm around her. The first thing she did as national team manager was to strip Wendie Renard of the captain’s armband. The nearly 190-centimeter-tall centre-back, with an almost unbeatable track record at Lyon, had worn it for four years. In her own autobiography, Renard writes that she was told that she only performed 40 percent as well on the national team as for the club and that she “suffered a lot from Diacre’s brutality and rejection”. – I took the captain’s armband off her because I wanted her to focus on her own achievements. For me, maybe she cared a little too much about others. As a result, her performance was far below what she can do, Diacre has explained. CAPTAIN AGAIN: Wendie Renard has regained the captain’s armband after losing it when Diacre came in as national team manager in 2017. Photo: STEPHANE MAHE / Reuters Another one who fell out with the coach was midfielder Gaëtane Thiney. She stated that Diacre should modernize his tactics and the player was left out of the next national team gathering. Diacre’s reasoning was that Thiney had performed too poorly. Random? Maybe. But L’Équipe journalist Carine Galli believes it is more than the players’ sporting achievements that come into play when Diacre selects a squad. – Previously, there were several big stars with strong personalities, and almost all of them came from Lyon and PSG. Now you have players like Charlotte Bilbault in Montpellier and a lot of young players who gain confidence. Players who do not create “drama”, says Galli and continues: – It is easier with the new players that she has brought in herself. It is logical. She gets a better relationship with them. So the atmosphere in the team now is much better, but with journalists it’s not exactly that. Cool relationship with the press For it is no secret that the relationship between Diacre and the press is reasonably cool. According to several French journalists news has spoken to, the national team coach never says “hello” when she meets them, and she very rarely gives interviews that she is not obliged to carry out. The same form of communication she has been criticized for by Henry and several players can be reminiscent of the one she uses in meetings with journalists: harsh and direct. SHARES A LITTLE: Corinne Diacre is known to be very private to the press and prefers to avoid answering anything other than football-related questions. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP In contrast to a number of other coaches in the EC, such as England’s Sarina Wiegman, Diacre does not spend time joking during press conferences, or talking about things that are not one hundred percent football-related. For her, it’s all about discipline, both on and off the pitch. – Corinne Diacre is a very good coach, but she is a difficult person to deal with, even for her own players. It’s not that she doesn’t like them, she’s just a very cold coach, very disciplined, French football expert Julien Laurens has told the BBC. Defends own national team manager The way she is has caused a lot of noise, and if you look up the English Wikipedia page for Diacre you will find that almost the entire text is about controversy. – It may seem that she seeks conflicts, and all the stories that come out … I don’t think it is good for the reputation or development of French women’s football, Galli believes. GOOD TONE: Kadidiatou Diani has great confidence in the national team manager and believes she is a good coach and a good person. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP But for Diacre, only one thing matters: results. And that is exactly what she is about to achieve. Despite criticism and intrigue: the 47-year-old has already made history and done something that no one else has managed before her. She has taken France to their first European Championship semi-final, with a young squad full of talent. One of the players who has really shown herself in the EC is Kadidiatou Diani, and she praises her reviled national team manager. – Is Diacre as difficult to work with as some say? – No, Corinne is a very good person. You might think she’s mad, but I think that’s just how she looks. She is easy to talk to and talks to us a lot before and after the games, so for me she is a really good coach, says Diani to news. The training session the day after the quarter-final victory substantiates that the atmosphere in the team is better than in a long time. The players seemed to be enjoying themselves with soccer tennis, trampoline jumping and hoops. They laughed and joked, and with them stood Diacre with a big smile on his face. Watch and hear the semi-final between France and Germany on TV 2 or news Sport, Wednesday at 21. BIG SMILE: The mood in the French squad after the quarter-final victory was cheerful and good. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP
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Described as cold, difficult and conflict-seeking – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
