• Randal Kolo Muani and FC Nantes face Nice in the Coupe de France Final this Saturday.

  • Before winning in the Nantes eleven, the player had to be patient, despite the criticism.

  • He will join the Frankfurt club this summer, runners-up in the Europa League.

On March 2, FC Nantes qualified for the final of the Coupe de France, beating AS Monaco on penalties.

After the match, the striker of the Yellow and Green, Randal Kolo Muani, looks back on this feat and says he never set foot at the Stade de France.

This Saturday, it will be a first for the number one asset of the Canaries, who has the opportunity to end his Nantes adventure there in apotheosis on Saturday against Nice in the Coupe de France final.

"It will be my last big game at FC Nantes," notes the 23-year-old striker who, at the end of his contract, has already signed up for Frankfurt for next season.

“I'm going to give it my all, I have traces to leave.

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Born 15 days before Kylian Mbappé in December 1998 in Bondy, the city where the world champion grew up, Kolo Muani spent his childhood in Villepinte, 20 km from the setting of the Blues.

“I see it often, for me it's a dream to play there and I'm finally going to accomplish it,” he smiles, delighted with this final “at home”, in front of his family, his friends… and 80,000 people.

“Playing a final with your training club is not given to everyone”.

Especially since the course was not easy, his apparent nonchalance and his side head in the air, on the ground as outside, having cooled several coaches.

“Let him go like this…”

Appeared stealthily in Ligue 1 in the Nantes jersey at the time of Vahid Halilhodzic in 2018-2019, he was loaned one season to Boulogne-sur-Mer (National) and was not part of Christian Gourcuff's plans for the recovery in 2020. One year, nine goals and three coaches later, "RKM" saved Nantes from relegation by scoring the winning goal in the Toulouse play-off.

After a stint with Les Bleuets for the Euro Espoirs and the Olympic Games, he led his confirmation season with a whole new maturity.

Admittedly, Nantes president Waldemar Kita is choosy, assuring that a "great striker" must score at least 15 goals.

With 13 achievements this season, Kolo Muani is not far from it.

Kita is especially bitter to see the nugget fly away for nothing.

“We educated him, fed him, housed him, gave him a profession.

He has become an adult.

And that he leaves like that…”, he lamented this week in the daily

Presse Océan

, convinced that Frankfurt had sealed the agreement two years ago.

“They all lied”

Above all, the club has been far too stingy for too long in its extension proposals.

However, Kolo Muani is still far from having the lead in Germany.

Frankfurt are Europa League runners-up and a win would send them straight to the Champions League, but they have shown only vague interest in the paths of their future team-mates.

For now, he speaks of loyalty and gratitude to Nantes and remains very involved: always listening in the locker room, never stingy with effort on the pitch, he exhausts the opposing defenses.

Inevitably, today, dreams are also jostling in his head.

Moreover, the people of Nantes who ensured that they remained focused on the championship since the semi-final against Monaco "all lied", he laughs.

The feeling of accomplishment

"We try not to create a scenario but it's impossible, you have to think about it," he admits.

A goal at the Stade de France, "it's like that, I think about it, I dream about it", he adds, while recalling: "We have a wide collective, my teammates can also do the job" .

Bringing the cup back to Nantes would therefore be a great way to end this story.

And in case of defeat?

"It's going to be a bit complicated.

But we were able to keep the club in Ligue 1, we had a good season, I think I will still be proud to start on that.

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