At the Paralympic Games, blind football players made their debut in the competition. In the French team, ten players have been selected for the Games, but the Blues must do without one of their pillars, Yvan Wouandji, who suffered a cruciate ligament rupture a few months ago. Despite the disappointment, this athlete from the Paris region of Cameroonian origin does not intend to miss a crumb of the Games.
By Elodie Vilfrite
He is one of the greatest talents in blind football. At 31, Yvan Wouandji already has an impressive track record. Voted Star of Blind Football in 2010, best player of the 2018 and 2019 French Championship, twice European champion in the French team in 2012 and 2022, his talent is no longer in doubt. Among all the competitions, the Paralympic Games have a special flavor for him: “The Games are about sharing, about working, sweating, giving your all, getting involved. It’s also about being a citizen, the player enthusesWe took part in two Paralympic Games, London in 2012, where we won silver, and Tokyo, where we didn’t get the results we wanted.”
Paris 2024 marks the third participation of the French blind football team at the Games. The discipline has competed in the Paralympics since Athens 2004. Blind football is a sport similar to football, but which has many specific features. “On the field, there is a goalkeeper who must be sighted, and the field players must be visually impaired or blind. For fairness, we all have a blindfold. It’s 5 against 5, specifies Yvan Wouandji. Blind football is basically an adaptation of futsal, and blind football is always played outside and never inside, because inside, it resonates, there is a lot of noise around, and as we talk a lot on the field, we really need the field to be pleasant for us.
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Discover blind football in “opening his ears wide”
The players play on a small handball field, Yvan Wouandji his explanations : “As we can’t see the touchlines, there are barriers on the sides, like that, the ball never leaves the field. The ball is special, there are bells inside, like that, when it rolls, we hear it on the field. Behind the goal where we have to score, there is someone who sees, he is the team guide and he gives us directions: “you’re 11 meters away, you’re 8 meters away”. When I play, the guide is behind the opposing goal, like that, when he speaks to me, I hear him and I visualize the cage.
This year, while number 8 remains off the field, Yvan Wouandji is nonetheless involved in the competition. Named ambassador of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, he promotes the practice of his sport among young people and recently carried the flame. In Paris, at the Eiffel Tower stadium, Yvan is among the first supporters. “There is an idyllic setting for an exceptional completion, he rejoicesMy first mission: first to encourage the team and just to show people that football is for all tenses. »
He makes an appeal: “ Come and discover blind football, come and open your ears wide, your eyes a little, but above all your ears. Yvan hopes that the enthusiasm for the Games will help to swell the ranks of blind football clubs: the federation currently has around 500 members.
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