On November 9, 2019, Gaëtane Thiney replaced Kenza Dali on the lawn of the Atlantic Matmut of Bordeaux. Entering the 62nd minute of play, the then 34-year-old midfielder offers a decisive pass in the process to Amel Majri for the fifth goal of a match won (6-0) against Serbia. A little more than half an hour later, in front of 21,211 spectators, the native of Troyes (Aube) does not know it yet but she has just known her last appearance in the tricolor jersey. An international career started in February 2007 and concluded with 163 selections (7th French French) and 58 goals (4th best banner).
This Friday evening, in Saint-Gall, in one of the stadiums of Euro 2025 (July 2-27), the French team faces Switzerland. Without Gaëtane Thiney, therefore. Now 39 years and 5 months old, the Paris FC player was not summoned by coach Laurent Bonadei. A surprise for anyone, or even for the one who is also a national technical advisor to the French Football Federation (FFF) since 2012. So at the start of the week, the Paris FC captain took advantage of the international truce to announce her sports retirement on her social networks.
“All history has an end,” she writes. But did its story with the Blue really end one day? Like Amandine Henry or Eugénie Le Sommer, Gaëtane Thiney was first set aside by Corinne Diacre, a selector from 2017 to 2023. “I had met Gaëtane at the end of November (2019) to tell her that I could do without her services in the future, explained the technician in February 2020. I was not firm and categorical. Only weekend competitions guide my choices. And I found since the World Cup that her performances were below what she had shown before. »»
Hervé Renard, a disappointed hope
Meanwhile, Gaëtane Thiney had made several criticisms of the management of Corinne Diacre, with Canal +. “I am exhausted to keep everything for myself,” she claims in mid-February 2020. Before reiterating in September 2021: “Did I make a cross on the French team? No, I made a cross on the logic of deacon. I have a delicate position because I work with the FFF and I cannot say everything I think … but there is no logic in what has been done for a long time. ” Before the hopes of the player at 430 games with Paris FC (and ex-Jvisy) returned at the time of the appointment of Hervé Renard, in March 2023.
The coach then wants to decide with the deacon method. He recalls the executives Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry, gives them an important role in the locker room and, except injury, trusts them on the ground. Gaëtane Thiney, she, receives no invitation. But the environment does not despair. His biggest regret? The Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The previous season, despite the age advancing, she continues the matches with the Paris FC, author of a brilliant course in the Champions League and semi-finalist in the championship, defeated on penalties by PSG. With 34 tenure out of the 37 possible club, Gaëtane Thiney believes that he has the qualities to rally the tricolor group. But the door closes again.
“Make the games, for me it was a perfect end point”
“Gaëtane, if his team is efficient it is that it is too, notes Hervé Renard in October 2023. Now, you have to make choices and today’s choice is to favor those that I have called for quite some time, with some young players who are there to prepare the future”.
A month and a half later, the principal concerned reiterates a last call in an interview with BeIN Sports. “The French team is visceral,” she supports. I like France, everything I experienced. This is my continuous dream. Make the games, for me it was a perfect end point. I didn’t have an international career so easy. I was sometimes misunderstood because people did not necessarily know me. It is in a corner of my head to tell me that I will make the Olympic Games ”.
As at the World Cup in 2023, the Blue will stop in the quarterfinals of “their” competition. A bitter failure in which Gaëtane Thiney will not have participated. Would the scenario been different with her? “I understood that, in the world of football, there were lots of questions that remained unanswered,” she said on Tuesday with the daily the team. This will be part of it.