“It was crazy, crazy”, Johann Lepenant looks back on maintaining it in 2021

Loaned this season to Nantes, Johann Lepenant is regaining sensations. The player belonging to Olympique Lyonnais, currently training with the French Espoirs team, continues to gain momentum. During an interview given to the official website of the French Football Federation (FFF), the midfielder was asked to speak about his professional debut. “These are only good memories. The rescue on the last day of 2021, it was crazy, crazy, I will always remember it. We really formed a special team, I had the impression of playing with the reserve in a way” he recalled for his first professional season in Ligue 2.

“After the departure of coach Pascal Dupraz, who launched me as a professional upon my return from the U17 World Cup, it was the reserve coach Fabrice Vandeputte who came up to finish the season with us and he took the opportunity to make bring a lot of young people with him. It’s with this group that we sought to maintain our position in the last four matches, especially in the last one,” continues the 21-year-old.

“The only negative point is that we were still in the Covid period”

The Norman club had actually made a crazy rise in the rankings after having struggled during almost the entire championship before saving themselves from relegation to the National. “We play the leader, Clermont, we take a red after fifteen minutes… and we win by a landslide. Magnificent! The only negative point is that we were still in the Covid period, I couldn’t celebrating that with the supporters I missed that throughout my debut: playing in empty stadiums, it’s not what I had imagined as a child” concluded Johann Lepenant. This Tuesday, the France Espoirs Team hosts Austria in the final match of the Euro 2025 Qualifiers.