It is not because they no longer run a bullet in the foot that they are not competitors. The desire to win, even while walking, is intact. But without pressure. It is a bit the recipe for Football success by walking, in full development in Cornwall. Clubs already exist in Ergué-Gabéric, Pluguffan, Quimper … The activity also tries to pierce on the side of Concarneau and in Cape Sizun.
Walking Foot Erge Vras is one of the pioneering clubs. The association was born in 2019, on solicitation of that of Trévoux, near Quimperlé, who was looking for opponents and game partners. The Mayonnaise took, and the Gabérical club today displays around thirty licensees, including six women. They meet on Saturday morning on a clay site dedicated to their practice, “a little smaller than a handball field”, specifies Jean-Pierre Dagorn, club secretary.
Three touches of ball to play everyone
“We play five (including a goalkeeper) against five,” he continues. There is no contact or tackle. The game is done while walking, at ground level – ban from lifting the ball – with three maximum ball touches. A particularly appreciated rule because it allows you to involve all the players, good and worse in the match. “In the event of a free game, a player could be tempted to move towards the goal while keeping the ball without spending it to a less competent teammate. »»
This state of mind has attracted Jacques Velly. Educator at FC Pen Ar Bed He came to discover the discipline in Ergué-Gabéric. “I immediately hung and decided to train myself,” explains the one who is carrying out the football development project today by walking in Cape Sizun. “The first meetings attracted a dozen people. Today, we are a group of 25 people. They meet on Saturday morning, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the Esquibian stadium.
-Football by walking “allows you to find sensations, to repry a collective sport discipline, following an operation, to an injury, as part of the health sport, observes Jacques Velly, to find lost emotions”. The whole, he insists, “in pleasure”. So, “there is sometimes waste in the game, jokes Jacques Velly. We play close to the goal, so there are a lot of strikes and a lot of goals. The matches end easily on scores with ten goals. ”
“At our ages, we no longer want to compete”
Above all, practiced in leisure, the FOOTEN walking is increasingly interested in the federal bodies, in search of new competitions. “It is double-edged,” says Jean-Pierre Dagorn who fears losing playmates. “Today, the problem of harmonization of game rules and arbitration arises. Not all clubs have the same what can be a source of tension. And we are ancients. I am 56 years old, I started playing at 49 years old. We recruit women from 40 years old and men from 50 years old. At our ages, we no longer want to compete. At the start, the discipline was created so that the ancients find a little taste for sport and effort ”.
