NARRATIVE. “I wondered what the hell I was doing there!” Football for dummies or reality TV from Pascal Dupraz, former coach of Toulouse FC

Stade Laurent-Massacret, Fontenay-le-Vicomte, Essonne, 30km south of Paris; Sunday April 28, 2024. End of month, start of day. Under the gray, the ASFV premises receive the Agreement of the Pays de Limours. Welcome to the CDM, Sunday morning Championship, a specificity of the Ligue Île-de-France, labeled FFF and “reserved for dads” summarizes Thibaut, 33 years old, commercial director and right side of the Blues on the green meadow.

Lots of colors, it smacks of amateurism! A gross foul, a penalty and 0-1 on the scoreboard as the final score: the Fontenois conceded their 16^e defeat in 18 matches, 90 goals in the bag! Around the handrail, under his blue hat, hands buried in his matching Parka, a surprise spectator: Pascal Dupraz. The famous Savoyard coach – naturalized in Toulouse since his miracle rescue in May 2016 – has just accepted a mission which seems equally impossible at first glance: to prevent the Fontenay-le-Vicomte team from falling further. That is to say going down to D2, the last division of the competition. There are five games left to try to achieve the feat and it will be done in front of the cameras.

What if a Ligue 1 coach coached an amateur team?

This is the bet that Pascal Dupraz made by taking the lead of a team of players from Fontenay-le-Vicomte in Essonne, last in the ranking!

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This is the pitch, football from below to the top of the poster. The documentary uses the same name as the original Belgian series: “Les Héros du Gazon”, the first of two seasons of which (that’s fair to say!) dates back – already – to 2015 on RTBF. Following one of the worst teams in the country: quite a program… Endemol. Including the production company in Hauts-de-Seine, Puzzle Media, adapted it for France 3 Paris Île-de-France via 8 episodes of 13 minutes. The casting of choice, therefore.

“Why Coach Dupraz? Every football consumer remembers his legendary chat in the Angers locker room, the founder and director of the production company Jonathan Politur responds straight away. No staging, only the real thing. We know the whole character of the character was perfect.” “We had the best on hand,” corroborates director Jocelyn Hapdey, “Pascal is a natural painter and the project appealed to him. So…”

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So the person concerned threw himself headlong into the battle: “You know, I don’t have a club at the moment, hence the free time. I’ve gotten into the garden, laughs the one who signed his first exploits with Évian/Thonon-Gaillard, but it doesn’t take me all week… Directing guys who only lose, that speaks to me Then, admits Pascal Dupraz, actor in quotes I didn’t know. never imagined, even in a dream.”

Result of the races and accounts: every Thursday evening, training day, until the Sunday meeting, the TFC technician between March 2016 and January 2018 will take up residence in Fontenay-le-Vicomte. “Well,” smiles the firefighter on duty, “I quickly realized the magnitude of the task. Let’s just say that the first time I saw them play, I asked myself what the hell I was doing there! And at session no. 1, wow the general level, inability for most of the boys to tame the ball, I said to myself that it was going to take me years… However, they are so endearing if I dare.”

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No need for translation. Rather illustrations, preferably in color. “There will be lots of laughter,” says the master of ceremonies. Jumble: on a Thursday we needed to move a goal padlocked to a barrier, it will take 45 minutes to find the right key!; in the last match, as we were playing outside, the license and ball attendant had forgotten everything…;

So many slices of life. “Sincerity, authenticity, these guys are disarmingly righteous, legalistic; they are the incarnation of a large majority of French people, we recognize ourselves in them. They create social bonds, have in common this notion of sharing, honor the elders Yes, says Pascal Dupraz, our adventure sends a lot of messages.” Well helped by a minimalist intervention on the part of the film crew and “light” equipment: 3 cameras, 2 GoPros in the goals, a drone.

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“Do as you feel,” explains Jocelyn Hapdey, “we won’t bother you. That was the bias – now, there have been a lot of rushes… Pascal even forgot our presence, he was invested in his commando operation. “Wasn’t quite on time, he didn’t care, he started the session without us!”

Thibaut, defender: “His soothsaying side, impressive!”

What traces left with the players? “It’s incredible how he is first interested in the person, testifies the guard Thibaut. The first advice he gave us was this sentence: ”Before being a good player, he It’s about being a beautiful person.” Then, what struck me was his divining side. He knew who among us was going to score and conversely how we were going to concede goals. The captain and No. 6 Yanis, 32, media trader, doesn’t say anything else: “His expert eye, completely crazy! I enjoyed debriefing with him after the matches.”

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A maintenance technician in concrete pumps, the 34-year-old Portuguese goalkeeper, Marco, prefers to retain his unifying side: “With him, we became warriors.” While player-coach Alex, 28 years old, No. 10, receptionist-storekeeper, announces the color: “The way of pressing intelligently is for me one of his tips that has served us the most. Because before we had a tendency to board like oxen Then, I hear him repeat again: ”Hey guys, Give some balloons.””

Axel, attacker: “He has a little something extra…”

Final words for Axel said Pépito, 27 years old, in the restaurant business, supersub and author of a striptease (!) at the last match of the season at home: “It was Mother’s Day, I wanted to put on a show but be careful, I didn’t take everything off, there were children Otherwise, clearly, Pascal has a little something extra, as the other would say, maybe even if I was warming the bench? (laughs). In any case I’m whole, we found each other well. We hugged in the final episode: there are hugs that are worth more than a long talk.” We’ll let you watch the epilogue…