What better setting than a stadium filled with more than 10,000 spectators, set on the Champ-de-Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, to write history in letters of gold? At the end of a tense final, concluded on penalties, the French team snatched its first Paralympic blind football championship title from Argentina. Never before had the Tricolores won better than bronze. That was in 2012.
This feat, against a nation that has become a rival, where blind football is more professionalized, France owes much to Frédéric Villeroux, author of several decisive goals in the tournament and, above all, the winning penalty shootout.
Euphoria immediately took over the players and the stands once the final whistle sounded. “After the victory, we have 5-10 minutes where we shout like everyone else, but we don’t even know where we are anymore,” Gaël Rivière laughs to Ouest-France. “We were in an area where we couldn’t hear anything.”
“Yes my love!”
Mickaël Miguez, his teammate, took advantage of the collective jubilation to add a touch of personal happiness to his evening. The defender grabbed the speaker’s microphone and declared: “There is someone here who is my partner. Do you hear me, my heart?” “Yes, my love!”, she replied. And Mickaël Miguez asked her: “Do you want to marry me?” The public took it upon themselves to pass on the answer: “She said yes!”
In addition to the supporters in the stands, including Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation, some 5.3 million television viewers at the time of the coronation watched the scene from their sofas. So many potential wedding witnesses for Mickaël Miguez.
Whether it was during the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games, the requests were legion this year. We think back, for example, to Charline Picon and Sarah Steyaert, after obtaining their bronze medal in sailing in Marseille. Which proves that Paris is not the only capital of love.
- RMC Sport
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