They handle the round ball brilliantly, even with one less member.

Amputee football players prepare to play Euro Amputee football in Poland.

One month before the event, Europe 1 went to training at FC Bouaye, near Nantes.

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While Lionel Messi was presented with great fanfare on Saturday night at the Parc des Princes, these footballers too deserve a great ovation.

They don't play on two legs, but on one.

Accident, illness, civil war ... They found themselves amputated, and despite this, he handles the round ball brilliantly.

In a month, the French team will also go to Poland to play the amputee football Euro.

While waiting for the event, Europe 1 went to a club near Nantes.

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Only players with lower limb amputations, except the goalkeeper

“When I had my accident, I didn't think I would go back to football,” says Grégory.

In 2005, the latter suffered amputation of his right leg.

He was then 18 years old and this accomplished footballer believed his career dreams had flown away.

"They picked me up from the hospital and told me 'it's possible to do football again'. I didn't believe them, but I saw them in action."

They are the players of the French football team for Amputees (EFFA), with whom Grégory will play the Euro in Poland in September.

"These are only players with a lower limb amputated, and the goalkeeper must have an upper limb amputated, he plays with an arm," explains their coach, Guillaume Viaud, also assistant coach of the Tricolores.

France, late

Without their prosthesis, the players move on crutches. Be careful, if the ball hits one, it counts as a foul. Not easy to get used to, especially for Thibault, who is discovering the discipline. His biggest worry is the "phantom leg," he says. "You always have the reflex to want to play, but you say to yourself 'oh well no, there is no more foot'".

That day, they are five to train in the Bouaye club, south of Nantes. It is the only club in the Great West. For Laurent, another player, this illustrates the delay of France in this area. "In Turkey, there are more than 16 teams in England, which already have grounds for the practice of amputee football. Poland is ahead, and we are lagging behind." In Poland, precisely, the objective will be to reach at least the quarter-finals of the Euro.