They made history at the Paralympic Games. The French blind football team struck a major blow by winning gold for the first time on Saturday evening against Argentina in a penalty shootout (1-1, 3-2 on penalties) in a crazy atmosphere at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Since the discipline entered the Paralympic Games in 2004 in Athens, all the titles had been won by Brazil.
Huge Frédéric Villeroux
At home, in front of their own fans, France managed to become only the second nation to have its name on the list of winners in six editions. The Blues of blind football thus offered the 19th gold medal to the French delegation at these Games, the 74th in total. A legendary moment experienced remotely but live by Gérald Baticle’s Espoirs. As shown in a video published by the FFF, the Bleuets thrilled to the match and the thrilling penalty shootout.
Overjoyed, they particularly praised the XXL performance of the French number 10, Frédéric Villeroux, the best player of the tournament. Considered “the Messi of blind football”, he opened the scoring, and it was he who scored the decisive penalty for France. “Villeroux MVP! And thank you also Barto (Alessandro Bartolomucci, the goalkeeper) for the saves! Very big match by Villeroux! The gold medal, you did it!”, exulted Enzo Millot and his teammates.
After a draw against Slovenia (1-1) on Friday, the Espoirs have a meeting in Le Mans on Tuesday to challenge Bosnia-Herzegovina (6:30 p.m.) for the rest of the qualifications for the Euro U21 2025.
- RMC Sport
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