Axel Ngando, without a club and without reproaches – France

Left foot throw, right foot throw, acceleration, strike, goal. The exercise is repeated at least five times, like so many others for more than an hour, under the watchful eye of a physical trainer and in an almost spring-like heat that would make you forget that the month of October is already well underway. started. It's 1:50 p.m., at the Guilands stadium in Montreuil, Paris-Est zone, and drops are beading on Axel Ngando's forehead. In the shadow of the large towers that have grown up at the foot of the Gallieni metro station, this is where the former Rennais brings the excitement to life. Unlike these women and men who take advantage of the track to string together laps, it is on the synthetic surface of this small stadium in 93 that Ngando works his ranges. Usually, the attacking midfielder trains in Rennes, where he lives today with his partner and their two children. This time, the native of Asnières took a trip to Paris to say hello to his parents, who still live in the region, while still doing a training session. Just so as not to lose the rhythm. “ The most important thing is that my body is ready for the day when I return to the field », slips the person concerned between two sips of water. No, Axel Ngando is not back from injury or lacking playing time after technical discrepancies. He is simply, like dozens of other professional footballers, without a club.

“When the transfer window ends and you realize you don’t have a club, it’s a bit hard”

All summer, Axel Ngando waited for the phone to ring. More precisely since he returned to France at the end of May after a season in Azerbaijan, at Araz Nakhitchevan. A year that did not go very well with the 2022-2023 Azeri D2 champion, promoted to the elite, where Ngando arrived in mid-September, after five days of championship, in a team built in two weeks. « Already last summer, the transfer window had been complicated and I had not had 56 offers, he plays again. JI arrived in Azerbaijan mid-September, it took me a little time to adapt. I went there alone, because my son was going to school for the first time, and we didn't want to disturb him. During the season, the results were complicated, the coach was fired, there was a lack of stability. All of this made the season complicated. » If Araz Nakhitchevan continues, it is agreed between the two parties that there will be no season 2. After two weeks of vacation, Axel Ngando resumes a rhythm of 4 to 5 training sessions per week, generally in the morning, before resting and then enjoying his family at the end of the afternoon. He stands ready.

Same routine in July and August, where most footballers return to school. Like millions of French people, he follows, after the effort, Euro 2024. Then the exploits of Léon Marchand and the other French athletes at the Paris Olympics. The 1^is September is already here, summer has passed, but the reality is harsh: no concrete project has been offered to him. “ When the transfer window ends and you realize you don't have a club, it's a bit hard, explain Axel Ngando. But it passes, because I get back to work straight away. My head is on the handlebars. I have worked with my agent for a long time, we tell each other things, and I felt that the transfer window was going to be complicated. And then, being in my thirties, it's also harder in football. It blocks clubs, perhaps less abroad, but it can play a role. » On a daily basis, he assures that family support is precious in moving forward, even when his son, who has already seen him on TV, sometimes asks him when he is going to return to the field. Obviously, at this point in a career, a question emerges: at 31, without a club, are we considering hanging up? « Never. My life is football. I've been training every day since I was 12, since I joined PSG pre-training (which he subsequently left to go to the Rennes training center, Editor's note). When I'm not on the pitch, I'm less happy, that's normal. And above all, I still feel in great shape. »

Generation 93

As his session enters its final phase, a series of moving or stopped shots with a goalkeeper who came especially for him, one of his close-up achievements is reminiscent of his first professional goal. It was in Lorient, at Moustoir in 2012-2013, a derby evening where, after replacing Romain Alessandrini, the 90^e minute, Axel Ngando had appeared at the far post, replaced Jean II Makoun, author of a somewhat shameful miss and equalized… nineteen seconds after coming into play. Fred Antonetti had laughed, his general manager Pierre Dréossi too. The 19-year-old had spread his arms to celebrate in front of the stunned Lorient public, surrounded by his teammates. A few months earlier, he had refused an offer from Juve to sign professionally for Rennes. A few months later, number 10 in the back, Ngando was crowned U20 world champion with the 93 generation, his own, that of Pogba, Thauvin, Veretout and Areola. « We were a real family, a group of friends, asks Axel Ngando who specifies, in passing, that dwelling on the past is not really his thing. Every time we got on the field, we had incredible confidence. We knew that the match depended only on us. We were above. Today, I am no longer in contact with them much, because everyone has gone their own way. But these are memories that will remain. »

Incubated by Franck Haise among young people in Rennes, “ a leader of men who shook me so that I gave the best of myself »the sequel was not, however, that of spotlighs of Old Trafford or the Vélodrome stadium for Patrick Mboma's nephew. But a career filled so far with 200 professional matches in Auxerre, Angers, Bastia, Grenoble and even Göztepe, in Türkiye. The turning point? A fracture of the malleolus in March 2021, following a foul suffered in the last action of a match against Paris FC during the 29^e day of Ligue 2. His first and only big injury, this famous coin which fell head-on, which kept him away from the field for several months due to long healing, and which, above all, forced him to wait until January 2022 to find a base, at GF38. « To be honest, I felt that interest in me started to drop after Grenoble, when I came back from my ankle injury, poses Axel Ngando on the sidelines of the Guilands stadium. This current, more difficult period is teaching me not to think only about football. When we go to training every day at the club, the matches, we are caught in the gears. There, I have a more global vision like I've never had before. »

While waiting to embrace a new project, Ngando continues to eat football. He subscribed to DAZN to follow Stade Rennais, the club « of his heart city » in Ligue 1, but also Ligue 2 or even Barça, his favorite club. A busy schedule which also includes the F1 grand prix, his other passion, he is a big fan of Lewis Hamilton. Financially, he is receiving unemployment linked to his last contract in Grenoble, in 2022-2023, because his last experience in Azerbaijan did not allow him to contribute in France. “ In any case, whether I earn 5,000, 10,000 or 50,000 euros per month, I don't live any differently. I'm only 31, I have my whole life ahead of me. I can't do anything, he slips as he takes his leave. I'm an optimistic person by nature, not really the type to look back, should I have gone there or not… It will come back. » Perhaps in the weeks to come, on a professional pitch in France, we will hear again: « Axel, speed up! » His mission would then be accomplished.

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