More than three months after the elimination of the Blue against Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2025 (1-1, 5-6 on the tabs), goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin returned to this experience to the newspaper The Team. Not to decipher what Laurent Bonadei's players lacked sportingly to win, but rather to address the harassment and threats made on social networks against several players of the French women's team.
Already at the end of the competition, the left side Selma Bacha had been the subject of a targeted lynching on the part of
haters. Which had greatly annoyed “PPM”. The international with 70 caps rushed to defend her teammate: “We can be frustrated, we can be sad, we can even be angry. But never, never should hatred have a place in this sport. »
A complaint was even filed by the French Football Federation in order not to let these acts go unpunished. But not enough to calm the wave of hatred suffered by the players, on which Pauline Peyraud-Magnin spoke at length.
“I have already received death threats”
Asked what pushed her to speak, the Juventus goalkeeper responded bluntly. “I saw malicious, homophobic things”she first explained.
It wasn't even me in particular that it affected, but my family, especially my mother, who was sad for me. »
Some users even went so far as to send “death threats after matches with the French team and at club. » The 33-year-old describes receiving a “video, gif, of a person having their throat slit” from an unknown person who subsequently wrote to him that he “was going to do the same to me. »
But then, how can we explain that such proportions are reached for what Pauline Peyraud-Magnin describes as simple
” game “, football? “This may actually be linked to sports parties”or even video games. “A person wrote to me to tell me that I am bad at FC 26 »adds the guard. “I understood that it was because there was monetization behind it. So basically when they (the players of EA Sports FC 26formerly FIFA, editor’s note) buy something, they expect our performance to always be good. »
Obviously, this type of behavior cannot be excused for PPM, which intends to shake things up in the future. “We have to hit hard. Racism is not OK. Homophobia is not OK. It fuels hatred, it destroys lives, it destroys people. Anything that affects people's dignity is not OK. Some people need to weigh the consequences of their actions.” she concludes with
The Team.
