Les chaussures essuyées sur la pelouse et demi-tour… Michael Olise a refait son étrange rituel avant France-Sénégal
As he has done before every Bayern Munich match, Michael Olise reproduced his now iconic ritual before the match between France and Senegal (3-1) on Tuesday in the World Cup.
Michael Olise didn't change his routine on Tuesday for France's opening match against Senegal (3-1) at the 2026 World Cup. The attacking midfielder or winger for the French national team repeated his usual ritual when inspecting the pitch at MetLife Stadium (New Jersey). While players generally like to soak up the stadium atmosphere for several minutes, chatting with their teammates, joking around, or isolating themselves with headphones, Olise only lingers for a few seconds.
A quick test of the pitch, a furtive glance towards the stands, then back to the changing rooms.
As he does almost every time he plays for Bayern Munich throughout the season, the French international (18 caps, 7 goals) casually took to the pitch with a phone in each hand, a cup in his left, and the hood of his tracksuit jacket pulled up over his head. He then briefly wiped his feet on the white line of the pitch (as if testing it) while glancing furtively towards the stands… before turning around and heading back to the locker room.
He came out a little later to join the warm-up with the rest of his teammates. Then, he took his place in the center circle to sing the Marseillaise, before sparking France into life in the second half. Moved into a central role supporting Kylian Mbappé, he orchestrated Les Bleus' play before providing two assists for the French striker. The London native, who chose France over Nigeria, England, or Algeria (he was born to a Nigerian father and a French-Algerian mother), was named man of the match, validating Didier Deschamps's wise decision.
"I made the change to improve things," the coach commented matter-of-factly. "It's not the same profile as Ousmane, even though Ousmane is capable of playing there, but I felt he was too high up the pitch and we lacked connection. Obviously, Michael played that, but Ousmane was also much better on the right. These are options they can have when they switch positions. Senegal's deep defensive block led to technical errors on their counter-attacks. However, in the second half, we were much more consistent. We've gotten used to winning this first match. It's not the decisive one, but given the strength of the teams in our group, we're going to savor it, appreciate it. We have time to recover since we have six days." The next match is on Monday against Iraq (11 p.m.) at the Philadelphia stadium, which Michael Olise will likely have another brief look at.
Commentaires (11)
Participer à la Discussion
Règles de la communauté
💡 Astuce : Utilisez des emojis depuis votre téléphone ou le module emoji ci-dessous. Cliquez sur GIF pour ajouter un GIF animé. Collez un lien X/Twitter, TikTok ou Instagram pour l'afficher automatiquement.
Se connecter
Commentez avec votre profil, votre photo, et soyez averti des réponses.