PART 2 :
MEETING OM's FEMININ COACH,
CHRISTOPHE PARRA
By Philippe Serve
June 9, 2013
Christophe Parra is a happy coach and he humbly shows it. A local man, this 42 years old coach – he was celebrating his birthday this Sunday, but I learnt it later, so I hope he’ll forgive me for having ignoring it – knew one of the best French Football formation center, AJ Auxerre’s in 1987-88. Then he spent all his active career at La Ciotat, a small town near Marseilles, once famous for its shipyards. He stayed there from 1988 to 2007, first as a player, then a player-coach, and at last a coach. After four years while he was away from Football, he was contacted by OM’smanager José Anigo who offered him the very first coach position of the upcoming feminine section.
"Nothing can be built if not on human values"
Christophe Parra is a passionate man, who loves his job, takes it very seriously but with a lot of humility. For him, Football and particularly this Women’s Football experience at OM, is not only a Sports adventure, but essentially a human adventure. He insisted several times during the interview about this aspect and made clear that the girls under his command, but also the whole club’s staff, from the President Labrune to the most obscure employee, took their full part in this human adventure.Christophe Parra is a very cheerful and quiet man at the same time, part idealist and philosopher, part very pragmatic, his two feet well on the ground. He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get it. : “I try to work with short and middle-term goals”, he says.
”The ultimate mid-term one is reaching D1. We are half-way, finishing the short-term step and it has been a complete success so far. The idea is to access an upper level at the end of each season, in order to start in D1 in September 2015. But if we want to make the success last, we have to built solid foundations. That’s the most important thing. To build to last. And nothing can be built if not on human values. Everybody feels extremely concerned at OM about Women’s Football. There is a real synergy of will. To be at the start of this adventure is the most exciting thing. Not always easy, of course. It’s very hard work. When you start from nothing, you have to prove yourself and, more than anything, you have to make your own room in the pre-existing structure.”
For the coach, and likely for everybody at OM, the biggest challenge was last year with the creation of the Women’s section.So many questions were suddenly asked, so many problems were to appear. But thanks to the general deep implication and to the important material means given by the club, this challenge was crowned with success.The girls of OM, for instance, have all their training session at La Commanderie, the same place the men professionals (who finished 2nd in L1 this year behind PSG) benefit from. They have access to all its opportunities, having what only some D1 teams are able to enjoy. On another side, a simple look at OM’s official Website will let you know how the Women’s team is highly considered. Communication has never been joking matter for OM, and the girls can be happy with that.
"They want to learn, they want to know."
I asked Christophe Parra the very usual question about the main differences between coaching boys and coaching girls. As different coaches as Bruno Bini (a friend of OM’s trainer) or Patrice Lair, or Japanese Norio Sasaki, often talked about girls’ capacity to assimilate what they are taught in a quicker way than boys. He agrees with this view, even if he insists :
“The ball is round for everybody. Football belongs to Society, is a part of it and, therefore, is open to everyone, no matter the sex, gender, race, age, etc. What struck me at first was the girls’ lack of football culture. They didn’t have the sense of what specific and enduring efforts must be, or the sense of what is the concept of group in Sports. But they have a fantastic thirst of knowledge. They want to learn, they want to know. They always ask “Why ?”, and I like that. Why this tactical choice or why the club’s general goals. “
If Christophe Parra likes this attitude, it is certainly because he believes that “Sports is reserved to those who think”. And this noble and demanding belief is shown on the playground. Don’t expect this OM Féminines to play kick and rush. You know, this “Don’t think, just run after the ball” style. No. I was impressed – I told him and he was happy I noticed it – by how the girls always have their head up, never the eyes on the ball but all around, searching the best partner to play with, to combine. “They can do it”, says Christophe Parra, “because their technique is really good”. Indeed. What I saw during the first half of their match against Mouans-Sartoux on this Sunday was worth of a very good team of D2, and let me growing impatient to see this group in two or three years time, when it will be soaked in more experience.“I want to see this team developing its playing more and more”, Christophe Parra says. “To play well with another, you need to be three”. That could be his motto since the “jeu en triangle” (exchanges between three players in a triangle shape organization) was largely dominant in the match I saw.“To destabilize the opponent, you must look for and play in the space”.
I could guess that OM’s official motto, written on the chest of the players, “Droit au But” (Straight to the Goal) is an obligation to be respected when you are a Bleu et Blanc coach, an obligation to practice a Football based on attack, a spectacular game. Christophe smiles and approves :
“Yes, it’s important”. And he adds that “Here is the point on which the girls must keep on working: how to tactically improve their playing to go straight to the goal. They are very involved in the playing schemes, they constantly bring ideas, they are creative.”
"We are constantly and closely watched"
Next season, OM will take a step further with the launching of its Women’s Football School (reserved to 6-11 years old) and the creation of a “B” team which will play in District (D5). This could not be done this year and that’s why 6 points of penalty were taken away from the team. But, as we saw, it was not enough to prevent OM to win the title…
Christophe Parra is very enthusiastic about the idea to look after young players and turn their talent to good account. His current group is pretty young with only three or four players around 27/28 years old, all the rest being under 23 and many under 20. Sixteen out of the twenty-one players were already there last season. The lights are all green. When asked about the national and federal structures’ support, as FFF’s, the answer is fast : “Yes ! Our efforts are supported and we are constantly and closely watched in all our actions”. He too is watching closely what is happening elsewhere, either in France or abroad.
As a last question, I asked him which player he would dream to have in his team. He confessed having a liking for Gaëtane Thiney and Louisa Nécib. Well, two highly technical players, small wonder. I reminded him that the most famous Marseilaise Football player in the world will reach the end of her contact with Lyon in June 2016. Hopefully, OM will complete its first season in D1. Christophe Parra smiled.
It seems that OM found the right man for the right job. A lover of beautiful game, a clever and humanist man, demanding and respectful of his players at the same time. A last story : during the match against Mouans-Sartoux, in second half, he shouted to his players : “I want…”, then he corrected himself, “I’d like you…”, then again “Could you please do…”.The Mouans-Sartoux supporters standing beside me couldn’t believe their ears and laughed : “Wow !” was their reaction. I thought the same. Maybe – probably – the formulation was a bit ironic. But respect was certainly not absent, coming from a coach who asked each of his players to go and apologize to their opponents after each foul committed. Christophe Parra, a kind of a gentleman.
©Philippe Serve – All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without authorization.
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