The cries did not resonate as loudly as during the first appearance in a list of the Blues of Jonathan Clauss, last season. But it was still a party at La Gaillette, the RC Lens training center, this Thursday afternoon. Les Artésiens were in the dressing room to watch Didier Deschamps announce that Brice Samba was among the 23 called up to face the Netherlands and Ireland and they celebrated their goalkeeper as they should. “It moved a lot around him, the players were very happy for him, he let himself be carried by the wave”explained Franck Haise a few minutes after the announcement of the good news.
The club’s general manager didn’t even feel the need to congratulate Samba: “We just shook hands. When he signed, we knew the goalkeeper who told us that maybe at some point he would have the potential to be in the France team one day. In the Championship, he had shown quite exceptional things. It is mature today. He took with the club a higher dimension. I had no doubts that he was in the top three current French goalkeepers. It’s well deserved compared to everything he gives and everything he releases and all his perfs. »
This selection is perceived as almost normal by his teammates, who did not wait until March to promote him. “I was already surprised that he was not taken for the World Cup, because since the start of the season, his performances, and in training too, are very, very strong.explained his partner Alexis Claude-Maurice, an hour before the announcement of the list. I was surprised because I didn’t know him, I hadn’t seen his matches. But it’s really strong, overall, even with the ball, I don’t think there are many goalkeepers that strong with the ball at their feet. »
After the March 4 derby (1-1), where even his LOSC counterpart Lucas Chevalier said that Samba deserved “to be in the three”the lining of Lensois goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca had these words: “I think his presence in the France team will come. Without jargon, when we do a performance like that, when we’ve been at the top level for ten months and we’re going on, I don’t see how we could not call it, even more so since two of our landmarks (Lloris and Mandanda) left the Blues. »
“It means that the club is attractive and continues to develop its players”
Samba himself had repeated at the beginning of March his desire to put on the blue tunic : ” The list ? I’ll take a good look at it. I hope to be there. I want to give it my all every weekend. It would be a pleasure, a dream to be in the three guardians. » The dream is now fulfilled. “Thank you everyone, it’s amazing all these messages, what a day”he then rejoiced on Twitter.
The news is good for the goalkeeper and it is also the symbol of RC Lens which is breaking new ground. Haise: “There had been no selection for 18 years, there 1 last year, one this year, players who evolved before coming to the second level (Germany, for Clauss, England for Samba). It means that the club is attractive and continues to develop its players. For future players already at the club or about to come one day, it is a signal. »