Sonia Bompastor, the only Champions League winner as a player and coach: "It's the reward for a lot of work"

Sonia Bompastor is a French international footballer who played as a left-back and defensive midfielder from 2000 to 2013. In 2022, she was the first woman to win the Women's Champions League as a coach after winning it in 2011 as a player . She has 156 caps for the French team, which resonates as a kind of symbol for many young girls who want to play football. She was one of the players who took the gamble, who built something from nothing. She published an autobiographical book with Farid Haroud, Une vie de foot, published by Arthaud Editions.

franceinfo: Did this book allow you to become aware of what you had managed to accomplish?

Sonia Bompastor: It's true that at the beginning, I did it because I trusted Farid and I told myself that it could leave a mark on my children. And as time went on, we moved forward in the experience and I understood better who I am today and what made me the woman I am. So it was a very beautiful experience that allowed me to understand certain things better too.

You begin this book with a memory that is, all in all, joyful, but at the same time painful, which goes back to the Champions League final in 2011. You explain that you played this match with shoes that were not at all your size because the equipment manufacturers never took the trouble to take care of the women's shoes. This anecdote is terrible.

Yes, it's terrible because it's 2011 and in fact, when you compare it to what's already happening in men's football, it's light years away. At the same time, what's paradoxical is that I was happy with that.

"I thought it was normal to play perhaps the most important match of my career with unsuitable tools."

Sonia Bompastor

to franceinfo

This is incredible.

When you carry the French flag and you realise that the country you are in does not really consider women's football to be on the same level as men's football, how do you deal with it?

It's sad because in this country, there is everything to succeed. Lately, what makes us suffer even more is the comparison with England where, precisely, I also made the choice to evolve in my career by joining the Chelsea club. A country like England is not so different from ours, it is not so far away geographically and, a few years ago, it was behind us. There is an awareness, it is going in the right direction, but we are too slow and there is anger.

You go very far in this book, you approach your private life and this lie that lasted thirteen years. You fell in love with your teammate Camille Abilly. You were convinced that it was not normal and you were afraid of the look of your parents. You took a very long time to tell them and finally, their reaction was incredible on both sides.

There are several challenges in everything we talk about. The first is to accept it yourself and try to understand what happens when you are attracted to a woman for the first time. My dad's reaction, in fact, somewhere, I couldn't imagine anything else because my dad is a very cool person in life. Since I was born, frankly, there is nothing that doesn't upset my father. In fact, I don't even know why, I myself could have imagined that at some point, it would be difficult for him to accept it. Even today, it is a subject that is not necessarily easy to approach because it is not natural, it is not necessarily what I want to highlight and it is very complex because in fact, it is certainly what I am most proud of in my life.

There was a trigger for this announcement, it was the birth of your first daughter. Is your greatest pride to have built this family?

Of course. There is also my relationship with Camille.

"I think the pride also comes from being two women, having this family life with four children and having managed to lead both a personal life and a professional career."

Sonia Bompastor

to franceinfo

I thought it wasn't possible. You have to be well organized, you have to anticipate a lot of things, but it is possible and we are examples of that.

2011 Champions League as a player, 2022 as a coach. You belong to the very exclusive club of Zinedine Zidane, or Pep Guardiola, your male equivalents. What does it mean to you to be this one and only woman to have won this Champions League with two different functions?

I see it as the reward for a lot of work, a lot of effort. I am a very demanding person and on a daily basis, I leave little room for improbability. In any case, I am attentive to details, so it is once again a source of pride. At the same time, I am sometimes a little embarrassed because somewhere, there is modesty. Since a very young age and still today, I have the desire to remain discreet, because that is what characterizes me. So, I am a little torn, but these are very positive and pleasant feelings.