A well-made head in a healthy body. At the age of 25, not content with already having 24 selections for the French team, Clara Mateo has held, since September 2020, an engineering degree in materials specialty which she obtained at the Polytech Paris-Saclay school. . A diploma that she was not content to have framed to look pretty at her parents’ house, but which she made fruitful by signing – in March 2021 – a permanent contract within the company Arkema, which also happens to be the main sponsor of the French women’s football championship. A double course which is not exceptional for many players still far from being professional and from being able to live fully from their sports practice. Which is not exactly the case with Clara Mateo…

Part-time employee (approximately 40% of full-time, “business developer” function in the sports market), with working hours arranged according to her sports calendar, the Paris FC player considers this double role as a necessity, as much as a blessing, for her. “It allows me to find a balance in my life, to be more fulfilled too,” she confided to us at Clairefontaine before flying to Australia to experience the first World Cup of her career. “During the season, it allows me to work intellectually and to have my brain a little warmer on the pitch to make quick decisions. It also allows me to assimilate the instructions well. I am a player who likes to understand what is asked of her to express myself fully.

A cerebral nature that is found in his game, in a way. Indeed, from the top of her 168 centimeters and 60 kg, the native of Nantes does not impose herself physically on a field. It is neither the fastest, nor the most powerful, nor the most airy. But she is undoubtedly one of the most creative. What her coach, Hervé Renard, does not fail to underline when describing her in a few words. “Intelligence at the service of the game. She thinks about everything, always moves at the right time and in the right place. She brings wisdom to the team.”

“I am a player who likes to bring speed, whether individually or collectively because I like to combine with my partners, especially in small spaces, abounds the young woman. I also try to be effective in the last gesture, to deliver good passes, because I like to put my partners in the best conditions. In the finish, on the other hand, I have to be more decisive, more precise.

A sort of false number 10 used more on one side than in the axis of the field, Clara Mateo has however progressed a lot against the opposing goal. After a long statistically timid start to her career, the striker has scored more than ten league goals for three consecutive seasons. A progression that the former coach of the Blue, Corinne Deacon, had linked to the development of her professional life. “I think that her sporting maturity, she has had it since she had her professional maturity”, she analyzed in the columns of Ouest-France before Euro 2022 in England, real birth certificate of Mateo at the international level. “When she got her engineering degree followed by her CDI, she asked herself fewer questions and we felt a Clara who had grown up, who put more spontaneity into what she was doing.”

An efficiency that she must now export to the selection, she who has scored only 4 goals for the France team so far, each time against very modest opponents (double against Estonia, achievements against Vietnam and in Kazakhstan). A necessity all the more fundamental as the French team is suffering in attack in the absence of Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Delphine Cascarino, both injured and forfeited for this World Cup. “Inevitably, it is two very big attackers who are missing, so that redistributes the cards in the offensive sector, she agrees willingly. We are all going to have to bring our stone to the building to ensure that this collective shines. Which was not the case against Jamaica last Sunday (0-0), even if Clara Mateo was one of the most enterprising players. Enough to convince Hervé Renard to establish her again against Brazilian artists this Saturday?

Possible, but not certain with the probable return of Selma Bacha to the team. But whether in the starting 11 or off the bench, Clara Mateo will undoubtedly have an important role to play in the offensive awakening of Les Bleues, if only because of her versatility, precious to the eyes by Hervé Renard. What the main interested party translates as follows: “The state of mind of the group is that no matter the position where we are aligned, we must give the best of ourselves. In high-level sport, you have to constantly question yourself. Nothing is ever acquired, you always have to work to progress.”

It will also be necessary for him, to impose himself in the mind of the coach, to overcome this shyness which sometimes restricts him, even if he denies it. “It is true that I am shy at first, but afterwards, within a group, I free myself little by little. And on a field, I am very different. A self-portrait that brings her closer to a certain Zinédine Zidane, her absolute idol. That she now dreams of imitating brilliantly against Brazil, as the famous number 10 has done several times during his career.