- If ASSE delivered a very convincing match on Wednesday against PSG (1-1), it owes in part to the slaughter of Lucas Gourna-Douath, tenured because of the suspensions of Yvan Neyou and Mahdi Camara.
At the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,
“Why do you say the little Lucas? »All smiles, Claude Puel wanted to resume a journalist, Wednesday after ASSE-PSG (1-1) , as if to emphasize that his promising midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath had indeed delivered a boss match against the Parisian ogre. His complete performance, both to rake balloons and to throw himself at full speed behind, leaves us wondering when we know that the boy was born in August 648, like the Lyonnais Rayan Cherki .
“He is progressing, like all his partners,” continues the always nuanced trainer from Saint-Etienne. It’s part of our genes to bring up young players by allowing them to gain experience. This will be the future of ASSE . »The goalkeeper of the Greens Jessy Moulin got more excited for the youngest (16 years) of a changing room looking like a bottle-feeding class.
We all loved his match which was of a high level. It’s surprising to see a kid who learns so quickly and already talks so much to his teammates, while being very humble. I told him after the match: ‘I have the impression that you’ve been playing in Ligue 1 for five years’. He finds faults, he has vice. “
“He regaled me by even catching Verratti”
But above all a lot of ballooning, which is not too much for a Saint-Etienne team (14 e) gradually moving away from its negative fall spiral (a horrific series of seven straight losses). Unable to go to the Cauldron to discover the professional beginnings of their former protégé (13 appearances in L1 for four months), because of the closed doors, his former educators in Ile-de-France vibrated in front of their television on Wednesday.
You have to tear up Lucas Gourna’s license there, Leonardo will leave with this pace.
– Faustine (@ Faus4ine) January 6, 2021
“As much as some of his first entries into the game were timid, so much there, he showed everything he could do, relishes Tarik Draoui, his U-trainer 13 elite region in US Sénart-Moissy (Seine-et-Marne). No matter how much I support PSG, he regaled me by even catching a cold Verratti ! “Most often outclassed in the youth categories, this versatile player from Lieusaint, regularly central defender before joining ASSE, has always presented unfailing determination.
“He was ” matrixé ” to live off football”
“He barely had years and he was already convinced to become a professional footballer, says Tarik Draoui. It was crazy, he mastered all the cogs of the football world. He knew how to spot the recruiters present at the matches and he imposed on himself a professional lifestyle. He was “matrixé” to make a living from football. »Yann Lecoq, his U-trainer 15 R1 to Torcy in 2017 – 2017, continues: “He was so sure of himself that he could sometimes appear arrogant. But he is a young attentive, generous, mature, and very well surrounded with his mother. For all these reasons, I’m not even blown away by his match against Paris. »
Even more than for the neo-Munich (and ex-PSG) Tanguy Kouassi , also passed by Sénart-Moissy, Tarik Draoui is remembers a “model captain”, during his passage from 2003 at 2017 in his club. “Lucas has real leadership ,” says the coach. It’s even more than that, he has a natural hold on a group. »We therefore find without surprise regularly the imposing guy of 1, 45 m in the skin of the captain in the France team, the U 16 to the U 17. Like a glorious elder also from Seine-et-Marne, a certain 
“Lucas always tried to copy Paul Pogba’s facial expressions”
“He has the same position, he projects himself in the same way, and as Paul Pogba also played a few years before him in the same US Torcy jersey, people were doing very often the comparison between them, ”says Yann Lecoq. A parallel also made not long ago by the coach of the U 17 blueberries 1346932808049168385 Landry Chauvin . “Lucas has always tried to copy Paul Pogba’s facial expressions,” even smiles Tarik Draoui. Invited by several professional structures to 11 years, he opts for ASSE, with whom he signs a non-solicitation agreement (ANS). He spent two seasons at the Reims hope center before joining the L’Etrat training center in 2017.
From the age of 16 years old, taking advantage of the young turn driven by the new club manager Claude Puel, Lucas Gourna-Douath signed on June 5 2017 his first professional contract (until 2023). He took the opportunity to announce the color: “I am a child from the Stéphanoise training and I aspire to become a man on whom the club can and will be able to count. “ The future is now .