The players of Feignies, an amateur club from the North, face PSG this Sunday in the 32nd final of the Coupe de France.
At the club for two years, Thomas De Parmentier, attacking midfielder of the team, tells how the group is preparing this exceptional match for amateurs.
At 31, Thomas De Parmentier has already had a great amateur career.
In 2019, this attacking midfielder even played and lost an 8th finals of the Coupe de France with the northern club of Croix.
However, the one who has been evolving for two seasons under the colors of the Entente Feignies-Aulnoye (National 3) has never experienced such effervescence.
Sunday evening (9:10 p.m.) at the Hainaut stadium in Valenciennes (24,000 spectators), he and all his teammates will challenge the stars of PSG in the 32nd final of the Coupe de France.
An event for the club but also the whole region which will push behind the amateur club which evolves at the fifth national level.
The player tells us from the inside how the group is preparing for the match of a lifetime.
How do you manage these last days before challenging PSG?
It's really crazy what we're going through.
When we came across PSG in the draw, we felt that something was going to happen but we did not measure all this fervor.
But it is not difficult to manage because it changes our daily life a little because all the people we meet talk to us about it.
The light is on us today.
We try to savor and stay humble because our heads are in the clouds.
But we will give everything we can on the ground.
How does this effervescence translate?
I have recently been employed by the club.
And whether it is the organization of the match, ticket sales or even media management: it's madness.
We were able to measure how much people are attracted to this game.
Even if we are not naive because we know that some are only interested in PSG.
But we hope that there will still be a majority of spectators who will be behind us.
We also know that there are a lot of disappointed people who did not manage to get places.
There were flaws in the organization but we did the best we could by favoring the people of the club who are with us on a daily basis.
We could have brought the whole region to the stadium.
The fervor will be exceptional and we will have to manage to take advantage of that without foiling.
We know that for many, this will be the first and last time that this will happen to us.
It's really huge.
Are you already talking to each other about jersey exchanges with PSG players?
Personally, I think more of the match than the exchange of shirts.
But it is true that between players, we talk about it and some have already said that they would like to recover Mbappé's jersey.
I would like to have that of Marquinhos.
Beyond the great player that he is, it is the man and everything he embodies that I like.
But above all we think about preparing for the match and the immense challenge that awaits us in front of 24,000 spectators.
It is necessarily a special moment.
You talk about Mbappé but you do not mention Messi.
Don't you believe in his presence on Sunday?
I didn't mention it because I prefer to remain humble.
Potentially playing against a guy who is already seven times Ballon d'Or, that would be another crazy thing.
I tell myself that Messi will not come to play against Feignies-Aulnoye even if we all want him to be on the pitch.
We know that Mbappé wants to play everything and we think there is more chance that he will be there.
We have more doubts for Messi but we hope.
It would be madness if he played.
Can you imagine having such a player next to us on the pitch?
It's crazy.
Do you have a fear of hurting one of the stars of PSG?
I think so.
These are the players we support in the Champions League, these are the guys we watch every weekend and they are idols for many of us.
Obviously, we won't want to hurt them because we respect them a lot.
After that, it will remain facts of the game. There will be no will to hurt but if it has to happen, unfortunately it will happen.
It's football and we all know that these are things that can happen on the pitch.
But yes, it would piss me off to hurt one of those players.
Nobody imagines you eliminating PSG.
Do you really think you have something to play with?
It's hard to answer that. We are a competitor and when we play football, it is to win. But we are all aware that it is an almost impossible challenge. Afterwards, we don't know what can happen. There will be 25,000 people behind us. We will see if we will be inhibited or transcended by the event. Deep down, I think we all believe it. We have to believe it. We cannot say to ourselves that we are going to go on the field to be spanked.
We are a good bunch of friends and we know that we will give the maximum.
And even if we don't manage to do it, I want us all to look at each other at the end of the match, telling each other that we gave everything and that we did well against one of the best teams in Europe.
Conversely, if we qualify, we go down in history and it becomes a crazy thing.
Whatever happens, we will do everything to cause them problems while being realistic in view of the gap between the two teams.
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