The Our Futbol Podcast is proud to be collaborating with FUTBO13RA® to bring readers coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – Women’s Soccer Tournament. You can download the FUTBO13RA® Guide: Paris 2024 PDF here.
Les Bleues have a date with destiny and it seems like they’re ready to face whatever lies ahead. Eight years after their last Olympic participation, leader Hervé Renard looks to put the squad front and center and firmly turn the page on both the 2019 World Cup that saw the team out in the semifinals right at home and the 2023 World Cup quarter-final elimination.
While it is true that they secured a spot in the tournament by hosting the competition, the reality is that the level that France has shown in the last year has been impressive. They were finalists in the 2023 UEFA Nations League, where they were bested by the current world champions by a small margin.
“In football anything is possible, but I think there is a number one team (Spain) in the world that is by far the team to beat. It will not be easy, we will have to progress and draw conclusions,” Hervé Renard stated in a recent interview for Relay.
Although Renard’s arrival to the French team was a breath of fresh air for a group of players who had been involved in a complicated relationship with their previous leadership for several years, it’s unclear who needs this potential victory more: the players or the coach.
“He has a lot of knowledge of what is happening in other countries. “He has the experience, we talk to him a lot and he is very open,” shared Salma Karchaoui.
For Renard, Saudi Arabia’s historic win at the 2022 Men’s World Cup against eventual World Champions Argentina is distant, and today the goal is to win a medal in front of his people to end his farewell tour on a high after it was confirmed that he will be leaving the national team once the Olympic tournament is over.
The two-time African Cup champion knows that he cannot be left with nothing and a mixture of emblematic players with those who are beginning to shine will be key for a team that has won most of its games with authority since the end of 2023 and sits in first place in its group in the EURO 2025 qualifiers.
Inès Benyahia (Le Havre FC) and Louna Ribadeira (Paris FC) are some of the players to keep an eye on during this Olympic process, however, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Eugénie Le Sommer are some of Renard’s most trusted forwards and everything indicates the latter will be ready after suffering an injury earlier this year. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 4-4-2 or a 4-4-3, this team wants goals.
Captain: Wendie Renard
“I am a competitor at heart. I love this shirt and I want to do everything possible to win a title with it,” stated Wendie Renard recently to Europe 1 radio station.
When she was asked as a child what she wanted to do, she did not hesitate to write “professional soccer player and stewardess.” The teacher made her cross out the word professional. “That doesn’t exist,” they told her.
In Martinique it was not common to see girls kick a ball, but Renard was fortunate to be encouraged by the women in her family. One of her aunts was a referee and her mother loved watching the games on television. Being a player wasn’t only a dream, it was what she lived and breathed.
After her time at the U-19 level, she debuted with the senior team in March of 2011 and since then has had an unparalleled career with Les Bleues. She’s been part of four World Cups and will soon participate in her third Olympic Games. For the 17-time winner of the French League and eight-time European club champion with Olympique Lyonnais, this tournament almost seems like revenge. International honors are still considered unfinished business on her list and an Olympic medal would be ideal to celebrate France’s rise to second place in the FIFA Rankings — the first time they have placed so high on the list.
Renard is one of the key pieces for France in this competition; her height and physical ability to fight aerial balls and win individual duels is almost as good as her leadership and the respect she inspires among her teammates.
Despite being a defender, she’s registered 28 goals in 159 games that places her 5th on the all-time goalscoring list, and France will look to take advantage of these qualities in search of being at the top of the podium.
Player to Watch: Marie-Antoinette Katoto
As we talk about revenge, Marie-Antoinette Katoto is going for the biggest one of all. At 25 years old, she is Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer with 168 goals in 198 games and has been the D1 scoring champion three times, the highest category of women’s professional soccer in France.
At the national team level, she’s grown from the U-16 category to the senior level, always standing out for her scoring instinct, good positioning in the area and a powerful right-footed shot that frequently finds the back of the net. She debuted at the age of 20 with the senior team against Brazil and scored her first international goal in January of 2019. In 2018/2019, she scored 30 goals in 29 games for the club team, but the then technical director of France, Corinne Diacre, decided to leave her off the World Cup roster. This caused a stir and while many media outlets questioned her absence, Diacre stood by her decision.
After France failed to qualify for Tokyo 2020, Katoto’s dream of proving herself during the Euros in 2022 came crashing down when she was ruled out of the competition with a knee injury during the group stage. An official confirmation of a rupture of the meniscus and the anterior cruciate ligament eventually also kept her out of the 2023 World Cup, given she would not be ready by the time camp came around.
“It was difficult to be away but I thank my club’s medical staff who took good care of me,” she told One Football.
With the Olympics on the horizon, Katoto knows this could be her year. It doesn’t matter if she has to play as a pivot with her back to the opponent’s frame or look for spaces between the defense, shoot from mid-range or finish with elegance in front of the rival goalkeeper, she is ready to be a bastion of the French attack and claim that international trophy that has so long been denied to them.
Getting through the group stage will be a challenge for the locals. Colombia threatens to surprise, Canada will do everything possible to defend its title and New Zealand left a good impression during the recent World Cup. If France wants to cement its place in women’s soccer history and win its first title, this is the time to do it. At home and with their people.
What time does France play at the 2024 Olympic Games?
France match schedule in Group A
Thursday, July 25th
France vs. Colombia | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 3:00 PM EST | Stade de Lyon
Sunday, July 28th
France vs. Canada | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 3:00 PM EST | Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne
Wednesday, July 31st
New Zealand vs. France | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 3:00 PM EST | Stade de Lyon
This has been edited from its original version which can be found on the Futbo13ra website here.
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