Eduardo Camavinga could make his blue debut against Sweden on Saturday.

-

FRANCK FIFE / AFP

  • Called by Didier Deschamps to replace a Paul Pogba who tested positive for Covid-19, the young Rennais Eduardo Camavinga could know his first selection against Sweden on Saturday.

  • Hyper-gifted ball to the feet from an early age, the boy had nevertheless started by enrolling in a judo club.

  • But it was without counting on Fatima Ali, an educator at the elementary school of Fougères, who convinced the parents of the young man to enroll him in football.

“He puts his hands on his opponent, the round is taken, it's good.

Hip in front, that's kid!

Come on, we have to move on now, OUUUUIIIIIIIIIIII THE IPPON FROM BEHIND THE FAGOTS !!!

Who is the boss?

!

It's Eduardo Ca-ma-vin-ga!

At only 17 years old, the young licensee from the Fougères dojo is champion of France and certainly puts his napkin ring there at the table of the great tricolor judokas, magnificent!

"

There you have it, this is what you could have read if, at 6 years old, the young Eduardo Camavinga had not hit - ball in the feet - in the eye of Fatima Ali, the extracurricular animator of the elementary school of La Chattière, in Fougères (Ile et Vilaine), where the kid has lived with his parents since their departure from Angola in 2003. Finally, even if nothing says that the young man would have become so strong in judo - his first sporting love - that in football (we unfortunately did not succeed in joining the club in which his mother had registered him at the time), we chose to make this fiction a triumphant remake of what happens to the footballer of Stade Rennais , called for the first by Didier Deschamps in the French team to face Sweden and Croatia in the League of Nations.

🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/sepmmYdtnu

- Eduardo Camavinga (@ ecama10) September 1, 2020

“I had him in first grade and it's true that at that time, he was 6 years old, his parents had enrolled him in judo since his older brother was also doing it.

Football isn't that it wasn't his thing, it's just that he only played in the school playground, not in a club ”, remembers the one who still works. today at school in Fougères.

This is when the boy's life will change.

One destiny, two versions

However, at the time of going in search of information on the first steps of footballer of Camavinga, it is another story which is told to us.

“He was doing judo, he should never have played football, he didn't want to.

It was his mother who registered him because he lived in the neighborhood next to the stadium and he broke everything in the house while playing football!

She got tired of it, she went to see Yannick Courteille and Michel Souty (then educators at the Drapeau de Fougères) and told them: "Take him to football, like that, he won't break anything in the living room!"

», Told Nicolas Martinais, a close friend of the Camavinga family, to our colleagues from Ouest-France in May 2019.

But in his video presentation on the FFF website, the player corrects: “Basically I didn't want to play football, I wanted to play judo [so far the two versions agree] like my brother.

Except that at one point, I was at school and I played soccer all the time.

And the supervisors told my mom to sign me up for soccer, that's where it all started.

"For a journalist, hearing that is like telling a child that there are candies hidden somewhere in the house" Maximum level of curiosity activated.

The rest is a piece of cake: a little research on Google Map and a few phone calls to the local schools later, bingo, we found the famous supervisor / talent scout.

“It's not possible to be so talented at 6!

"

"I knew he was doing judo, but he was so good at football that it would have been a shame not to give it a shot", says Fatima Ali, "football fan", and whose memories of young Eduardo are still good. perennials.

“When we had inter-school meetings, it was a treat to see him play.

He did everything, he dribbled, he attacked, he defended, he ran in all directions.

He could even do everything on his own and with colleagues we said to ourselves "but it's not possible to be so talented at 6!", Recalls the extracurricular facilitator.

In the playground, he had to play with the grown-ups because when he was with children his age, CP-CE1, they never saw the ball (laughs)!

But even the CM2 he largely dominated them in fact.

"

Eduardo Camavinga in 'Planet Rap' mode for his hazing in the French Team 😂 pic.twitter.com/svZlRHJXor

- Vines Foot (@vinesfoot) September 2, 2020

Curious to see what this incredibly gifted kid for his age thinks about football and his level of play, Fatima opens the discussion.

“He told me that his parents had enrolled him in judo, that he liked it but that he was doing that because his brother was doing it too.

One day, Fatima rewinds, he told me that he would like to play football in a club but that he didn't dare talk too much about it with his family.

I told him not to worry, that I was going to take care of it.

I actually served as an intermediary!

"

Our Sunday scout continues: "We discussed it with colleagues and when his parents came to school one day, I said to mum" When Eduardo is with a ball, we see that he is happy, that's his thing ".

I asked her if she wasn't thinking of signing him up for a club to see what happens.

With this talent, it would have been a shame not to give it a shot.

So it all started like this.

A few days later, he came to see me and he said "Fatima, thank you, my parents registered me [with the Drapeau de Fougères]!".

He was delighted.

One day his parents came back to tell me that Eduardo was happy, that his bag for Wednesday training was ready on Monday.

"

Good pick.

If she still continues to follow her little nugget on TV, Fatima admits that it is more difficult today to hear from the teenager.

Saturday, she will be in front of Sweden-France to see if her crackito honors her first selection in blue.

“To see my little one in the France team would be incredible!

She enthuses.

However, we will have to get used to it.

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