“Stress and adrenaline are the driving forces”: two players from Ayr are world champions in table football

Unlike the image of a bistro game, table football has seventy clubs affiliated to the French Table Football Federation (FFFT), with more than 1,500 recreational and competitive licensees. Among them, the Roumois Table Football in Saint-Ouen-du-Tilleul, the only structure in Ayr, was founded in 2018 by Sebastien Toutin “because there was only one club in the region. Since then we have brought together players from the department as well as from Seine-Maritime to become the first French club in terms of the number of leisure licenses. That’s two-thirds of our seventy licensees, including six women.” And they stand out, as Sandrine Ferai and Malika Drange won the coveted title during the last Bonzini World Championships in doubles classic.

Sandrine Ferai of Gros Teil (Er). She discovered table football at the age of 11 before joining the Metropole table football club in Rouen, where she met Malika Drange: “I played my first games at the age of 6 or 7. We had a table at home and I played the stool with my brother and father. It was fun.” Together, they will take part in several tournaments before the club disappears and they join Rumua. Then the duo is really focused on finding trophies, “because with the competition we develop.”

“Stress and adrenaline are the driving forces,” they explain. To be good players you need mentality, concentration and patience. Competitions can go on for a very long time. You can wait hours between games. So you have to be ready physically, mentally and technically. Tournaments are also associated with meetings with other participants. And then, it is a pride to represent your club and your region. Every time it’s a new challenge to show that women can play at a high level in this sport, which is dominated by men.

Heading into 2024 to meet the world champions

Sandrine is in front, Malika is in defense, so thanks to many hours of training and experience, they were in the final of the Bonzini World Table Football Championship in doubles classic on May 18 in Saint-Avertin (Indre-et-Loire). : “We were not going to win. We wanted to make room. Our victory went match after match, and fortunately, because at our first meeting we got two French women, and we were not there. In the end, this gave us a boost, and we came out of the playoffs with three wins out of four, ”recalls Malika.

Thus, against twenty-eight teams, the two Normans beat the duos of the French in the 1/8 finals and quarter-finals, the Americans in the semi-finals and faced Dane Leah Quistgaard and Romanian Ekaterina Sarbulescu in the final. ending: “It was impressive. We were filmed and there were a lot of people. We were supported because we played at home and were not seeded. They really didn’t expect us there,” Sandrine laughs again.

In full osmosis, the Normans won in two sets (5/4, 5/3): “It was hard for us to believe it here. This is a first for us and the club. We received congratulations from everywhere.”

And it’s not over yet, because the European team has qualified for the World Multi-Table Championship to be held in Nantes 2024: “This is a meeting of world champions of different brands. We will prepare even if Sandrine leaves me for the next season. I have to find another partner for other tournaments. But we will prepare for this deadline,” Malika announces. Indeed, Sandrine wants to improve her game and has decided to “spend the season with a veteran like me. There are more people among men, and this should help me progress. Then I would go back to the girls, ”explains the striker.