Latest news with #WendieRenard
BBC News
19 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Renard and Le Sommer out of France Euro 2025 squad
Captain Wendie Renard and all-time leading goalscorer Eugenie Le Sommer have been left out of France's 23-player squad for next month's Euro 2025 in who are looking to win a major tournament for the first time, will face England in their Euro 2025 opener on 5 July, 20:00 Renard, 34, or Le Sommer, 36, were selected for their Women's Nations League victories over Switzerland and Iceland in the past week - decisions manager Laurent Bonadei said were "not made in the spur of the moment".Centre-back Renard, who has played 168 times for France since making her international debut in 2011, missed three of the past four internationals because of Geyoro, Sakina Karchaoui, Sandie Toletti, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin and Mbock are among those who have worn the captain's armband in Renard's Sommer, who has scored a record 94 goals in 200 appearances for France, featured for just 27 minutes of those games, and was due to be honoured last week before the victory over Switzerland in omitting Renard and Le Sommer from his Nations League squad last month, Bonadei said: "As Einstein said: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.' I want different results for this team so I have gone with a different selection."It's something I've been thinking about since the start of the season. "When I announced that everyone had a chance, that no one was indispensable, in my mind it wasn't just about giving young players a chance but also players who had suffered psychologically after the Olympic Games and making sure that everyone was involved."France were beaten 1-0 by eventual silver medallists Brazil in the quarter-finals of their home squad features four Women's Super League players - Chelsea duo Sandy Baltimore and Oriane Jean-Francois, Kelly Gago of Everton and Manchester United's Melvine Lyon winger Delphine Cascarino has been recalled to the squad, though she is expected to miss the beginning of tournament preparations because of her schedule with club side San Diego Wave. France squad Goalkeepers: Justine Lerond (Montpellier), Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (Juventus Turin), Constance Picaud (Fleury)Defenders: Selma Bacha (Lyon), Lou Bogaert (Paris FC), Elisa De Almeida (Paris SG), Maelle Lakrar (Real Madrid), Griedge Mbock (Paris SG), Melween N'Dongala (Paris FC), Thiniba Samoura (Paris SG), Alice Sombath (Lyon)Midfielders: Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea), Grace Geyoro (Paris SG), Oriane Jean-Francois (Chelsea), Sakina Karchaoui (Paris SG), Amel Majri (Lyon), Sandi Toletti (Real Madrid)Forwards: Delphine Cascarino (San Diego), Kadidiatou Diani (Lyon), Kelly Gago (Everton), Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Lyon), Melvine Malard (Manchester United), Clara Mateo (Paris FC)
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
France leave Wendie Renard, Eugenie Le Sommer and Kenza Dali out of Nations League squad
France have left captain Wendie Renard, record appearance-maker Eugenie Le Sommer and Kenza Dali out of the squad for their upcoming Nations League games against Switzerland and Iceland. The trio have a combined total of 444 caps for the national side. Head coach Laurent Bonadei said that he was trying something different with his team selection but did not say that the players would be out of contention for Euro 2025, which is set to take place from July 2 to 27. Advertisement '(These decisions) are difficult to make and difficult to announce to the players,' said Bonadei. 'It's a decision that's hard to hear, hard to understand and almost impossible for them to accept because they're legendary players for the French team. 'I didn't make this decision on the spur of the moment. You'd think, given the timing, that this is crazy but it's not. As Einstein said: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.' I want different results for this team so I have gone with a different selection. 'It is the end of the season, but I started the process months ago, at the beginning of the season, I announced back then that everyone has a chance and no one is indispensable and I not only decided to give an opportunity to the young players but also to the older ones.' 𝐋𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐮𝐞𝐬 📝 Les 2️⃣4️⃣ joueuses sélectionnées par @LaurentBonadei pour les derniers matchs de 𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 face à la Suisse 🇨🇭 et l'Islande 🇮🇸 #FiersdetreBleues — Equipe de France Féminine (@equipedefranceF) May 22, 2025 Bonadei added that the players had suffered mentally after competing at last summer's Olympics in Paris, where they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Brazil. Renard, 34, made her France debut in 2011 and has been capped 168 times by the team. The centre-back has played her entire club career for the newly-rebranded OL Lyonnes and is one of most successful players in women's club competition history, winning 18 French league titles and the Champions League 18 times. Despite her domestic success, Renard has been unable to help France win their first ever major tournament but had her eye on changing that this summer. 'That's my goal (winning Euro 2025), she told The Athletic in April. We've got a project under way. Now, we need to keep our feet on the ground, not talk, stay in our corner and work.' Le Sommer has been capped 200 times and is France's all-time leading goalscorer, in both men and women's competition, with 94 goals. The 36-year-old also plies her trade for OL Lyonnes, where she has made 424 appearances and scored 287 goals. Dali, 33, has appeared 76 times for the national side. She signed a two-year deal with the San Diego Wave of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in January, The midfielder spent the previous five-and-a-half years in England, playing for West Ham United, Everton and Aston Villa. She played at the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics after overcoming a career-threatening injury. France have been drawn in Group D at Euro 2025 alongside England, Wales and the Netherlands. ()
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
France drop Renard, Le Sommer and Dali in shock cull before Women's Euros
France have dropped their captain Wendie Renard, their vice-captain Eugénie Le Sommer and the experienced midfielder Kenza Dali for their upcoming Nations League games with little prospect of either making a return for this summer's Euros. Laurent Bonadei's side face Switzerland and Iceland in the international window. There had been reports of the trio being left out but the announcement still came as a shock to many. France are one of the favourites for the European Championship in Switzerland but have been drawn in a tough group with England, the Netherlands and Wales. 'These are tough choices,' Bonadei said. 'They are difficult to make and difficult to announce to the players. It's a decision that's hard to hear, hard to understand and almost impossible for them to accept because they're legendary players for the French team. 'I didn't make this decision on the spur of the moment. You'd think, given the timing, that this is crazy but it's not. As Einstein said: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.' I want different results for this team so I have gone with a different selection.' France have never won a major tournament and were eliminated by Brazil in the quarter-finals of last summer's Olympics in Paris. Renard, Le Sommer and Dali were all in that squad. Bonadei refused to confirm whether they were definitely out for the Euros but did say: 'It's something I've been thinking about since the start of the season. When I announced at the start of the season that everyone had a chance, that no one was indispensable, in my mind it wasn't just about giving young players a chance but also players who had suffered psychologically after the Olympic Games and making sure that everyone was involved.' Le Sommer and Renard have partly paid for their lack of playing time over the last few national team gatherings. The forward, who has 200 caps for Les Bleues and was due to be honoured for that feat in Nancy before the game against Switzerland on 30 June, played just 27 minutes in Les Bleus' last four matches. Renard missed three of those through injury with her former OL teammate Griedge Mbock shining alongside Maëlle Lakrar against Ada Hegerberg's Norway. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion 'Things happened naturally, with a mix of generations in the first few games and we racked up four wins from four Nations League matches. In those four games the playing time for these players was fairly limited. My thoughts were refined, in consultation with my staff, so I made my decision,' Bonadei said before explaining that he called each of them on Tuesday to let them know about his decision before Thursday's announcement.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Lyon Women change name and get training base ‘better than most men's centres'
The French champions Olympique Lyonnais Féminin have been renamed as OL Lyonnes, as part of a series of announcements made by their owner, Michele Kang. The American businesswoman has also revealed the team will make the Groupama Stadium – home of the Lyon men's team – their regular home stadium. Kang said other mid-sized stadium alternatives, including a local rugby stadium, were explored before they reached the conclusion that the stadium that hosted the 2019 Women's World Cup final is the best venue for them. The record eight-time women's European champions will also be moving to a new training centre, swapping existing sites with the Lyon boys' academy, and renovating that training base to be a bespoke 'performance campus' built and designed specifically for female athletes, which Kang said she will personally finance. 'It's not going to be cheap,' she said but declined to disclose exactly how much will be spent on the new, state-of-the-art base, which will include a statue of their captain Wendie Renard. 'This is going to be better than most men's teams's training centres,' Kang said at a press conference on Monday. 'It's actually amazing the team achieved the amount of success it has with the amount of resources allocated to them [previously].' On Friday the team won their 18th French women's top-flight title, their fourth in a row, defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the playoff final, thanks to goals from Renard, Melchie Dumornay and Kadidiatou Diani. Their new name is linked to the French spelling of the word 'Lionesses' (Lionnes) but with the i swapped to be a letter y in order to reference the city of Lyon, said Kang, who also owns the newly promoted English independent women's club London City Lionesses and the NWSL club Washington Spirit. 'This new chapter for OL Lyonnes is about more than a new name and logo,' said Kang, who also unveiled a new logo for the rebranded team, which features a Lioness on its new crest. 'It's about redefining what's possible in women's football. Our vision is to set the global standard for excellence, ambition and investment in the women's game. On their stadium search, Kang said: 'We concluded that not only our players deserve the best playing environment, our fans deserve that [too]. We did look at other alternatives, because we all agree, from day one, filling out a 57,000-seater stadium is not possible. For big games we absolutely have aspirations to sell out but not all games are going to be like that.'
Business Wire
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Olympique Lyonnais Féminin Unveils Bold New Brand and Vision
BUSINESS WIRE)--At today's press conference at Groupama Stadium, Kynisca Founder and CEO, and majority owner of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, Michele Kang, outlined the team's new brand, logo and strategic vision for the club in the years ahead. This new vision includes: A new name to continue writing an unrivalled history: OL LYONNES A new logo to be proudly displayed from the start of the 2025/2026 season A performance campus dedicated to women's sporting excellence A move to Groupama Stadium for all home matches 'This new chapter for OL LYONNES is about more than a new name and logo – it's about redefining what's possible in women's football,' said Michele Kang. 'Our vision is to set the global standard for excellence, ambition and investment in the women's game, and this transformation reflects our commitment to giving our players, staff and fans the platform they deserve.' OL LYONNES: New Brand Identity To build upon the club's storied history as the team enters a new era and looks to become the key player in women's football, the club is introducing its new name and brand: OL LYONNES. The team will also adopt a new banner of ' Nouvelle Histoire, Même Légende ' ('New Story, Same Legend') to carry forth this transition. To support this transformation, OL LYONNES will proudly boast a brand-new logo on the jersey from the start of the 2025-2026 season. Coupling the attitude, energy, and ambition of the team with the emblematic red and blue colours into a roaring lioness's head, the logo brings together the club's historical DNA and the vision for the future. With a record 39 titles to their name, and an unmatched eight European championship titles, the new logo also includes the addition of a crown to symbolize both past and future success. 'I was pleasantly surprised by the astute balance between the historical DNA of Olympique Lyonnais, and the development of the logo, with this new feminine emblem of a lioness which matches us perfectly. The lioness is so true to our state of mind as warriors, roaring on all the fields of play,' said Wendie Renard, captain of OL LYONNES. A Dedicated Performance Campus for OL LYONNES As part of the club's mission to continue empowering and elevating the world's most successful women's team, OL LYONNES will build the premiere women's football performance campus in the world – with a relentless focus on performance and female athlete well-being. This campus will serve as the physical embodiment of the renewed OL LYONNES brand and vision for the future. The OL LYONNES campus will bring together the women's professional and reserve teams as well as all academy age categories, and will include state-of-the-art performance facilities customized for female athletes – designed to be 'distinctly Lyon' through the incorporation of local materials and finishes. The development will also include Europe's first club-led women's football museum, where fans and the Lyon community will be invited to celebrate the OL LYONNES legacy in the women's game. 'As part of our commitment to setting the gold standard for women's sports and inspiring future generations, creating a world-first environment for champions to thrive is paramount,' said Michele Kang. 'By investing in infrastructure that meets – and exceeds – the bar set by top men's clubs, we are showing the world that women's football has earned its rightful place on the world stage.' OL LYONNES have appointed specialist architects F3 to lead the design project, who have most recently worked on the Tottenham Hotspur Men's and Women's Training Facilities in England, and are committed to designing female athlete-specific facilities. OL LYONNES Move to Groupama Stadium To allow OL LYONNES to continue to expand its fan base and global presence, the club will permanently set up its home at Groupama Stadium from the start of the 2025-2026 season, where they will play all of their home games in the Arkema Premier League, the French Cup and the UEFA Women's Champions League (UWCL). With this move, OL LYONNES will become the first women's football team in Europe to play all their matches in a flagship stadium. After playing an increasing number of showcase matches at Groupama Stadium over the past three seasons, alongside setting new attendance records across the UWCL, OL LYONNES will work to further develop and enrich the fan experience at the stadium. This stadium share agreement alongside Olympique Lyonnais shows that both OL and OL LYONNES are committed to building an innovative environment for both clubs to uplift each other and thrive together. About OL LYONNES: Founded in 2004 as Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, OL LYONNES is the most successful club in women's football, with a record 39 titles, including 8 UEFA Women's Champions League trophies. Acquired by Michele Kang in 2024, OL LYONNES is part of the first women-owned and women-led multi-club organization in football, alongside the Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses. The club carries forward its unparalleled legacy while embracing a bold vision to elevate women's sport, empower female athletes, and inspire future generations by breaking barriers and setting the global standard for excellence and equality in football. For more information, visit About Kynisca Kynisca is a pioneering global organization dedicated to women's sports, headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Kynisca's mission is to transform women's football through unprecedented investment, proving its commercial viability and cultural impact around the world. The organization supports female athletes with state-of-the-art facilities, world-class technical staff, and innovative sports science, while preserving each club's unique identity. Kynisca is the first global, female-owned, multi-club organization leading the way in women's health innovation and entertainment while building a high-performance culture of excellence on and off the pitch. For more information, visit
