Lucas Gourna-Douath was able to limit the influence of Kylian Mbappé, Wednesday in the Cauldron. Philippe DESMAZES – AFP
- If ASSE delivered a very convincing game Wednesday against PSG (1-1), it owed in part to the slaughter of Lucas Gourna-Douath, who started out due to the suspensions of Yvan Neyou and Mahdi Camara.
- At only 17 years old, the midfielder was omnipresent for his first full meeting with the pros.
- 20 minutes takes a look at the impressive trajectory of a player who has drawn inspiration for many years from Paul Pogba, also with US Torcy.
At the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,
“Why do you say little Lucas?” “All smiles, Claude Puel wanted to take back a journalist, Wednesday after
ASSE-PSG (1-1), as if to emphasize that its promising midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath had indeed delivered a boss match against the Parisian ogre. His complete performance, both to rake balloons and to throw himself at full speed behind, leaves one wondering when we know that the boy was born in August 2003, like the Lyonnais
Rayan Cherki.
“He is progressing, like all his partners,” continues the always nuanced coach from Saint-Etienne. It is part of our genes to bring up young players by allowing them to gain experience. That will be the future of ASSE. “The Greens goalkeeper Jessy Moulin got more excited for the youngest (17) of a locker room that looked like a bottle-feeding class.
We all loved his match which was of a high level. It’s surprising to see a kid who learns so quickly and speaks so much to his teammates already, yet is very humble. I told him after the match: ‘I have the impression that you have been playing in Ligue 1 for five years.’ He finds faults, he has vice. “
“He regaled me by even catching a cold on Verratti”
But above all with a full ball, which is not too much for a team from Saint-Etienne (14th) gradually moving away from its negative fall spiral (a horrific series of seven defeats in a row). Unable to go to the Cauldron to discover the professional beginnings of their former protégé (14 appearances in L1 for four months), due to the closed doors, his former educators in Ile-de-France vibrated in front of their television on Wednesday.
Must tear Lucas Gourna’s license there, Leonardo will leave with this pace.
– Faustine (@ Faus4ine) January 6, 2021
“As much as some of his first entries into the game were timid, as much there, he showed everything he could do, relishes Tarik Draoui, his trainer in the U13 elite region at US Sénart-Moissy (Seine-et-Marne) . No matter how much I support PSG, it delighted me by even catching Verratti a cold! “Most often outclassed in the youth categories, this versatile player from Lieusaint, who was a regular central defender before joining ASSE, has always displayed unwavering determination.
“He was ” matrixé ” to make a living from football”
“He was barely 11 years old and he was already convinced of becoming a professional footballer,” says Tarik Draoui. It was crazy, he mastered all the cogs of the football world. He knew how to spot the recruiters present at the games and he imposed a professional lifestyle. He was “matrixé” to make a living from football. “Yann Lecoq, his U15 R1 trainer at Torcy in 2017-2018, continued:” He was so sure of himself that he could sometimes appear arrogant. But he is a young attentive, generous, mature, and very well surrounded with his mother. For all these reasons, I am not even amazed by his match against Paris. “
Even more than for the neo-Munich (and ex-PSG) Tanguy Kouassi, also passed by Sénart-Moissy, Tarik Draoui remembers a “model captain”, during his stay from 2012 to 2017 at his club. “Lucas has a real leadership, says the coach. It’s even more than that, he has a natural grip on a band. “It is therefore not surprising that we regularly find the imposing guy of 1.85m in the skin of the captain in the France team, from U16 to U18. Like a glorious elder also from Seine-et-Marne, a certain
Paul Pogba.
“Lucas has always tried to copy the facial expressions of Paul Pogba”
“He has the same position, he sees himself in the same way, and as Paul Pogba also played a few years before him in the same US Torcy jersey, people very often made the comparison between them”, says Yann Lecoq . A parallel also made recently by U18 blueberry coach Landry Chauvin. “Lucas has always tried to copy Paul Pogba’s facial expressions,” even smiles Tarik Draoui. Coveted by several professional structures at 13, he opted for ASSE, with whom he signed a non-solicitation agreement (ANS). He spent two seasons at the Reims hopeful pole before joining the L’Etrat training center in 2018.
From the age of 16, taking advantage of the youth turn initiated by the new club manager Claude Puel, Lucas Gourna-Douath signed his first professional contract on June 5, 2020 (until 2023). He took the opportunity to announce the colors: “I am a child from the Saint-Etienne training and I aspire to become a man on whom the club can and will be able to count. ” The future is now.