MHSC: like Othmane Maamma, who made a promising start against Monaco, the Montpellier club wants to rely a little more on its young people

Montpellier ou la carte jeune symbolisée par l’attaquant Othmane Maamma (18 ans). MAXPPP – JEAN MICHEL MART

He burst onto the screen for his first in Ligue 1, Othmane Maamma (18 years old) is part of the future of the MHSC, like Khalil Fayad or even Lucas Mincarelli.

Young people are going fast, always faster. Sunday, in a somewhat extinguished Mosson before the lights went out, an 18-year-old kid, Othmane Maamma, reignited the flame, during the last half hour in front of Monaco, and its nuggets Ben Seghir and Akliouche.

Straight from the unknown, and from the training center, this young Alésien set the stadium on fire, woke up the La Mosson audience and put on the show in complete efficiency, under the eye of Téji Savanier, magician suspended and in the stands.

At the relay of Mousa Tamari, one of the star recruits once again on the back burner, Maamma went straight to the point. Large bridge, repeated hooks, overflow and above all crosses: this Moroccan U20 international pushed his audacity to the point of offering two goal balls to Tanguy Coulibaly and Akor Adams, implicitly recalling the lack of efficiency of the team ;attack at the twilight of the season.

Also read: Ligue 1: MHSC loses for its last home game against a superior Monaco and assured of being second in the championship

Just like in front of Nice, Lens, Marseille or Lyon, he will have missed goals in Montpellier to bite a big fish like Monaco and escape a final defeat (0-2) at La Mosson.

Fifteen years earlier, at the time of the return to Ligue 1 against Paris SG, another Franco-Moroccan, Younes Belhanda, had displayed the same insolence and the same talent in the face of the Parisians and Claude Makelele. Launched by René Girard, sparkling in the Gambardella final, he left his mark from his first steps, before entering Ligue 1 three years later.

Training, traditional know-how

Montpellier has always drawn on its natural resources. That of a training center set up in bungalows at the La Mosson stadium, at the beginning of the 80s.

From the Laurent Blanc generation to that of Belhanda, including that of Carotti, Montpellier has always experienced its peaks of success with its best young people. And sometimes completed his lean years with them.
Tight budget, after-effects of Mediapro and uncertainty around TV rights, President Laurent Nicollin favors this call for air between the training center and Ligue 1. Around a base of executives, with renewal in progress, the boss wants to swell the ranks of eternal youth.

Also read: MHSC-Monaco: Dimitry Bertaud, Khalil Fayad and Enzo Tchato, three men for the end of the season in Montpellier

Michel Der Zakarian, who heard some criticism during his Breton exile (2021-February 2023), opens the door a little more to his young people, if they follow to the letter the requirement of high level and the competition. « I hope that he (Maamma, Editor’s note) will continue to progress, to listen to the staff. If he wants to grow, he has to store and transcribe on the field, he says, to better warn the young attacker. And the others.

🥇 𝗩𝗢𝗨𝗦 avez élu Khalil Fayad 𝒋𝒐𝒖𝒆𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒖 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 de ce #MHSCASM

🥈 Othmane Maamma
🥉 Christopher Jullien pic.twitter.com/xowiTNdpoI

— MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) May 14, 2024

Othmane Maamma joins a host of more or less young players: Bertaud, Tchato, Fayad, Mincarelli, Guéguin, launched or relaunched, to follow in the footsteps of Chotard and his 150th match in Ligue 1, or even Elye Wahi and Maxime Estève, left, leaving enough in the crates to refresh the walls of Grammont.

On July 2, Maamma will be there to start the next season, alongside Issoufou, Junior Ndiaye, Ngosso, perhaps Mbappé from here, midfielder out of the academy Cameroonian of Henri Bédimo, to participate in the long summer preparation.

🎆 La DER’ à la Mosson
🎥 𝐋𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐦 𝐝𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 #MHSCASM
🏟️ ℳ𝑒𝓇𝒸𝒾 𝓅𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓋𝑜𝓉𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓊 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒 𝒸𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝓈𝑜𝓃 pic.twitter.com/5OUz68hb0T

— MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) May 13, 2024

Before thinking about summer, for some of them, there is a spring to write. Next Sunday, they are preparing to play the quarter-final of the French U19 championship, in Nantes, a benchmark in terms of youth. Within a workforce, still without several starters, Maamma could make a getaway to Bollaert. At a time when Montpellier shines a light on its future as an underground miner, the light can once again come from its young people.

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