Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines (France) (AFP)

"I don't want to lie, I want to stay me."

With the West Ham player, an interview at Clairefontaine turns into an unfiltered exchange, punctuated by laughter and anecdotes, a million miles from the often formatted speeches of the football community.

Capable of combining "sustained French" and street language, it never strayed from its naturalness.

"I don't want to come in front of you and speak like a President of the Republic, because it's not me. I can do it, eh, but I don't want to. When you interview me , I want you to feel who I am and that you like it, ”she told AFP.

She describes herself as "full of life, very talkative", with easy contact.

"I'm the type of person to make a friend of the train. After we stop there, I'm not the type to exchange numbers, but the time of a trip we can be the best friends in the world."

"Never under pressure"

Passed by Paris SG, Marseille and Soyaux, Cissoko (2 selections) returns to the Blue two and a half years after his last call, "without pressure".

In the West Ham locker room, a teammate asked her if she was stressed, but another replied: "But it's Hawa + fucking + Cissoko, she's never under pressure! +", She laughs.

For the Parisian "pure blood", from "Paris 19th", the round ball was first and foremost a pastime practiced at the city-stadium, at school and at FC Solitaires, her first club, at a time when she was unaware that "women's football existed".

His friends promised him a future in selection.

"I said to myself: + What? I'm going to be in the France team with the boys? +".

He first had to negotiate with his mother, reluctant but convinced by ... Aïssatou Tounkara, childhood friend and current partner in selection;

give up athletics, for which she had provisions, but less passion;

and channel the student "quite turbulent", often "excluded", but wise in the family.

Including the mother, the father and his second wife, "we were 13 at home. It was the zoo but it was too good!", Confides "the Cissokance", his nickname.

Veiled without being "a model"

The French women's under-19 team (U19) during the 2016/2017 season, Hawa Cissoko is in third place, second from the left, in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines in France on July 12, 2016. ERIC FEFERBERG AFP / Archives

Arriving in London in 2020, she made the choice the following year to wear the veil, except on the fields (nor during the interviews), a first for a footballer in the France team.

"To me, it's not an incredible thing, something to shout from the rooftops," she said, refusing to be "a role model or an example."

"It is not that I expose myself or that I hide, the goal is not to brandish it like a standard", continues the young woman.

At Clairefontaine, "I arrived with my turban" and without making it a matter of state.

"When you put on the veil, you want to be discreet, but if you make a controversy about it, it is no longer modesty since all eyes are on you".

Seriously injured at the start of last season, this "sparkling" player brings "a lot of good humor, joy" to the group, according to midfielder Grace Geyoro who has worked with her in the youth teams.

But once on the pitch, the smiles give way to a fairly physical commitment.

"Sometimes I could get the ball normally but I tackle, just to tackle, because it's impressive. When I end a game with a sore back, that means it was hard, that I had to get into it, and I love it ".

And to conclude: "When it's been hard and you lose, you don't love yourself. When it's been hard and you win, you're too happy. And when you win and it was easy, you're bored."

© 2021 AFP