Paris (AFP)

This is unpublished in the history of French football: the Blue, always looking for their first major title, count in their staff a mental trainer, Richard Ouvrard, who has already worked with handball champions world and then Europe.

In the organization chart, the French Federation presents it as "optimizer of the performance". In fact, it is a "mental coach who helps the players to formalize things for the group to live better", describes the coach Corinne Deacon.

Questioned by AFP, this mental preparation specialist, head teacher of a master's degree at INSEP (National Institute of Sport) wants to "avoid any illusion or fantasy about an exceptional or miraculous method".

The native of Nantes, 56 years, evokes a "craft that can be practiced formally with regular meetings individual or with the group of players (...) and informally to meals, training, technical meetings with the players where I observe, I evaluate, I question, I share ".

Richard Ouvrard has for many years been cultivating a nice address book among French sportsmen, including three-time Olympic canoe champion Tony Estanguet or former swimmers Alain Bernard, Amaury Leveaux and Yannick Agnel.

It is also found in the archives of the French Sailing Federation, which awarded him a prize of € 1,000 in October 2012 for his role during the London Olympics a few months earlier.

- "His speech is positive" -

More recently, it is with French handballers that he distinguished himself. It was the players themselves who claimed such a profile in 2016, when coach Olivier Krumbholz returned.

"He came to a transition period between two coaches, it was a supplementary help, another vision of things, and we thought that it could be a plus to take steps that could not be done in a handball way. "tells AFP the pivot Beatrice Edwige.

With him, "it's a lot of dialogue, discussions, exchanges, his speech is positive, he tells us + what made you get this result +, rather than + that it was not good + Some people will imagine that it's a guru or something, that's not at all ... In some meetings, he hardly speaks, "says the champion of the world 2017 and Europe 2018.

With his results, he was asked by Corinne Deacon before the World Cup to accompany the Bleues du foot throughout the competition. The French have never managed to win any major title and their friable mind has sometimes been mentioned in the past, rightly or wrongly, to explain it.

In recent days, without going into details, the players have spoken without taboo his presence at their side. Whether for individual interviews - "there are more intimate things that we like to share with one person," says Captain Amandine Henry - or collectives.

"It helps us, it brings us even more to go to the end in this competition." It will be necessary to remain in solidarity. "Moments like that, it only strengthens us, it's good," said striker Viviane Asseyi.

- "To each his job" -

"It's really important to be cohesive together, to think about the same things, to have the same goals, sometimes we know we have the same goals, but to say it is another thing, "insists Henry.

Mental preparation is not very widespread in French football, unlike other disciplines. "It's a sport where there are many ways, it's a little surprising that we do not push the machine to a climax in a field like this," considers Olivier Krumbholz.

According to him, there is "sometimes a little obscurantism" in French football on the evolution of coaching, when other sports "think about how to achieve the best performance and personalization of the work" of the athlete.

Do some coaches dread losing their prerogatives? "I have never felt deprived of anything," he replies to AFP, noting that he does not participate in the work done by the mental trainer to respect any "confidentiality".

"Me, I have my skills, but I also know my limits and I want to tell everyone his job", also explains Corinne Deacon. "But he's not there to handle the pressure, absolutely not, there's no pressure, playing football is beautiful, when you see all the people who have to get up in the morning to go to factory, we are very lucky. "

? 2019 AFP