The work, the sweat, he knows. Affected by the Achilles tendon since February 28 and re-operated at the beginning of December, Presnel Kimpembe works in silence and trains individually at the PSG Campus in the hope of returning to the pitch in good condition. Never give up, fight until the end, the central defender of Paris Saint-Germain has made it one of his maxims. Friday in the eastern suburbs of the capital, the French international came to deliver this message during the fifth detection organized by the Footsider application, co-created by Ronaldinho and Yacine Brahimi, one of his friends.
Available on the telephone since January 2023, it offers young footballers of age to enter a training center or who have not been able to access it or who have not been kept there, to be seen again, reviewed by recruiters from professional and amateur clubs of good levels. “This application is made for all these young people who have had little or no opportunity to be seen by professional clubs. They play matches to be able to show their physical or mental qualities. Getting to the top is complicated, we've been there, we have friends who have been there, with Footsider it gives them a little more hope and it makes it easier to find clubs and recruitment units, explains Presnel Kimpembe.
Arriving shortly after 2:30 p.m., before the last meeting of the day for the U15-U16 category, the 2018 world champion was invited to send a little word of encouragement to the young players from both teams. “I spoke to them, I told them to keep working, to have courage and a good mentality. Today, football is what happens in the head, it's a lot of work and humility. We know that it's a sport where everything goes very quickly in both directions. We can be a crack but the reality is that it is very complicated to go out,” he summed up before specifying that we had to observe the number 10 with the green jersey.
Two young people have already signed pro
To get noticed on the platform with 115,000 users, the operation is quite simple and could resemble that of the social network LinkedIn, where ordinary people can share their accomplishments, their professional successes or even look for opportunities and be canvassed by headhunters. “It's quite easy to use, you have to put videos of yourself during the weekend in a match. I'm a central defender so I put clips of interceptions and restarts for example. An attacker will score his goals. The objective is to put videos online that highlight us and then, there is a Footsider recruitment unit to select the players on the video for this type of event, explains Gabriel who played in the match of the U17 category. There is also another part of the application which allows clubs to publish their opportunities every week: last year a U17 National club which published detection dates with sought-after profiles. »
On the edges of the field, recruiters are also present to observe and dissect each profile. On site, PSG, Toulouse, Servette Genêve, Le Havre, Quevilly-Rouen Métropole, Fortuna Sittard (Dutch D1), Lorient, Bordeaux and Hamburg were able to observe a U19 match to spot potential who could strengthen amateur teams or even reserves. Ditto for the meeting at the start of the afternoon which this time concerns the U17s. In this category, two players who have participated in the Footsider detection in the past have signed a professional contract with Bologna (Italian D1) and Paris FC. The last match of the day then allows those who could join a training center to be seen.
“We have precise research based on years of age and positions. We already have quite a few players at the club and we don't want to pile them on. I look at the attackers of the 2010 generation and then also the wingers from the 2007 generation, it's quite targeted", confides a recruiter from a confirmed L1 club, who plans to review a profile to "form a different opinion than on this day. And perhaps confirm that Footsider can be the origin of great stories.