On January 7, 2024, fans of the CA Pontarlier football club will challenge a League 1 club: Olympique Lyonnais in the round of 32 of the Coupe de France. Four divisions separate the two clubs. Ten days before the match, immersion with the Franche-Comté players who juggle between their profession and the pitches, before this gala match.
Thursday, December 28, 2023. It is 5:45 p.m., we will meet in front of the Hyper U store in Pontarlier (Doubs). This is where Maxence Villemain, right back of the Pontarlier amateur football club, plays, when he is not on the pitch. “It’s a bit of a double life that we lead” smiles the young man, coat with his employer’s emblem on his back and pallet pump in hand, at the microphone of our journalists Alexis Cecilia-Joseph and Damien Lefauconnier. “It’s sporty, a good lifestyle we’ll say“.
The right back of the Pontarlier amateur club also works off the pitch. 39 hours per week in this supermarket, and three training sessions per week. A lifestyle that differs completely from that of its future adversaries, the players of the Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais, who will come to challenge CAP, in Besançon, in the 32nd final of the Coupe de France, on 7 January 2024.
Maxence Villemain at work. • © Damien Lefauconnier / France Télévisions
For this gala meeting, all the seats at the Léo-Lagrange stadium were gone in around ten minutes. But despite his little local notoriety, at his workplace, Maxence Villemain goes almost unnoticed on the shelves. “No I do not know him” admits a customer while the right-back is busy stocking the shelves behind her. “This young man seems to be very good, but he is unknown to me” adds another.
A special life, a bit at 100 miles an hour. Because once his work outfit has been put back in the locker room, Maxence’s second day begins: that of a footballer. Barely having time to breathe, he has to hurry home, swapping his work clothes for shorts and crampons.
A day like this is full. We work all day, we come home, we go to football, we come home again, we eat, we take a rest and then it’s already time to sleep to be in good shape the next day.
Maxence Villemain,
right back of the Pontarlier amateur football club
At 7:15 p.m., training begins at the Paul Robbe stadium, the home of CAP. And if today the majority of players come together, it is not always easy for amateurs to respond every time. Pierre Vannier-Simon, central defender, is for example a nurse in Switzerland.
Pierre Vannier-Simon. • © Damien Lefauconnier / France Télévisions
His daily life: 12-hour shifts during the week and weekends and 100 km round trips to go to training. Initially, the young man was scheduled to work on January 7. But it’s impossible to miss the match of a lifetime, he will finally be available against Lyon.
I managed to negotiate. Thanks to one of my colleagues, whom I thank, I was able to change my weekend to be there next Sunday. So very happy to be there.
Pierre Vannier-Simon,
central defender of CA Pontarlier
You will have understood, the coach of the Doubist team, Jean-Luc Courtet, has to tinker with absences on a daily basis. But after 23 years at the head of CA Pontarlier, he does not have to be ashamed of his record in the Coupe de France. “The first exploits date back to 2011 with the elimination of Amiens, which was in Ligue 2” he recalls. “Then, we eliminated FC Sochaux, also in Ligue 2. So we started to dream and understand that it was doable. The Coupe de France is now part of us“.
In ten days, players will have the opportunity to write a new page in their history. If they knock out Lyon, they will qualify their club for the first time in the round of 16 of the National Cup.
2023-12-30 10:54:06
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