by Jean-Pierre Thiesset (13/3/25).
This article is based on an exclusive interview of Rosemary Durand, Team Manager & Player Care for DFCO (Dijon Football Côte d’Or) Arkema Première Ligue team, realized on January 21, 2025, by Jean-Pierre Thiesset, Impetus Women’s Football.
Rosemary Durand was born on February 19, 2002, in Vesoul, France. From a young age, she does a lot of sport and quickly turns to football where she plays midfielder. She played in French “Régionale 1” (tiers 4) in Vesoul, Saint Vit and Longvic. Unfortunately, she had a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) for the second time in her young career and went under surgery at the end of last year; She is currently in recovery.
In addition to being on the field as a player, she carried out a mission as an educator in Vesoul and a year of civic service in Saint Vit where she was also an educator for U13 women’s and took care of the club’s communication on social networks.
Very involved in all the clubs where she went to help with events, working in the field of sport and particularly in sports management quickly became obvious to her. As she herself says: “I feel like it was innate and that I was predestined for working in sports since I was born.”
After three years of License in Sports Management in STAPS (Sciences et Techniques des Activités Physiques et Sportives – Sciences and Techniques of Physical and Sports Activities), she is currently in the second and final year of a Master in Sports Management in Law, Economics and Management.
How do we become Team Manager & Player Care for DFCO?
“Although there is no specific diploma as for coaches, education in Sports Management shows the theoretical aspect of the function. After my License in STAPS, I chose to pursue a different master’s degree to adopt a different approach to sports management and complete my skills in law and economics.”
“Small peculiarity with the DFCO, I played there for a year, and when you are young in my area the flagship club in women’s football is Dijon. I had been asking Sylvain Carric, Manager of the Women’s Section of the DFCO since July 2022, to integrate me into the club for a few years, and last year he had the opportunity to take me with him. Sylvain is a very good person, he supports me a lot, he is attentive to ensuring that I am fulfilled in my work and that is great.”
What does the profession of Team Manager & Player Care and your own role entail?
“This profession is first and foremost management and logistics, especially during travel for hotel reservations and transportation. At home it is necessary to organize the match with the delegates, the planning and the chronology of the event. So that is all that is organizational. I ensure every day that the training conditions are optimized for the players so that they work in an ideal and efficient environment. It is important that when the players and staff arrive, they only think about football. Team Manager is so diverse with many different situations that that is also what is fun about this job. This includes coordination with partner clubs to organize the entry of young girls escorting players onto the field as well as discussions with federal authorities, for example. I am the one who organizes all the relationships between the different services. I am the interface between the players and other club services.”
“The Player Care side is a little more individualized support for the players, accompanying them and supporting them daily for all extra-sporting aspects. As soon as the players arrive at the club, we must pick them up, do medical checks, integrate them and help them with everything administrative such as looking for an apartment, carry out the procedures with them for rental, electricity, gas and water contracts so that they integrate more easily into the club and into the city. Daily, it means helping them with the various needs they may have, such as processing taxes or finding a hairdresser (laughs). There are also relationships with family and plane reservations when they return to their family. There is hardly a day when I am not in demand and that is fine with me. This year, the additional particularity is that there are more foreigners and there is a need for support which is even much greater. So, Player Care is about supporting the players, accompanying them in everything they need and being there for them.”
“As it is someone who is not directly into sports, it is normal that we talk about her or him less, and she or his is therefore someone in the shadows. However, she or he is someone very important and I think that the more the players rise to a higher level, the more pressure they have, the more they must change countries, and therefore the more it is necessary for them to have extra-sporting support and that this support is in direct correlation with their performance on the field. I am convinced that it is a profession that should not be neglected.”
“There are a lot of things that I appreciate about this profession, especially the little moments of adrenaline before matches or before going on a trip where you say to yourself “is everything going to go well?”. Honestly, overall, everything is quite gripping in the end. There are always hazards and things that do not go as planned and you must quickly adapt and react; Above all, you must be proactive and anticipated, it is full of little challenges that I like, before the match everything must be ready and squared, and I appreciate these moments of adrenaline.”
What is the most difficult for you in this job?
“For me, now it is English language where I am not super comfortable and where I need to improve. The players are kind to me, and they speak to me slowly. I am also in the process of thinking about it and as soon as I have the opportunity, I will try to go somewhere to learn to speak English well because in a job like this it is essential to at least speak fluently English. Otherwise, the hardest part is managing to be organized on all the small missions that are entrusted to me, and which are so different. There are very small things and more important ones to manage, and you must be able to follow the thread, be organized and this is the most complicated so as not to forget anything. Ultimately, it is the hardest, but it is also what is the most exciting and when the players thank me, it makes me very happy because in the end I am doing it for them. It is a success for me when I see that they are fulfilled and satisfied and that makes me proud.”
What are the main qualities necessary to practice this profession?
“You must be very organized, in my opinion that is the basis, and have good interpersonal skills. You must be proactive, anticipate potential hazards and always be one step ahead. We also must have a sense of contact because we are in contact with the players, the staff, the management, the other clubs, the delegates, the federation and we therefore must know how to adapt depending on the public with which we interact.”
How would you like to direct your career?
“I am very happy here in Dijon but then we will see depending on the project that will be put in place for next season if it still corresponds to my values, my ambitions and my objectives. That being said, I am not forbidding myself from looking elsewhere because I want to gain experience and see how things work in other clubs. I would also like to go abroad because doing so would be a great experience. In the longer term, go from club to club to learn, then work in a national team.”
What message would you like to send to the DFCO women players and to young people, girls or boys, who would like to do this job?
“The women players on the DFCO team call me Mom, so I consider them a bit like my daughters, and I try to take care of them as much as possible. They pay it forward to me, as well as to the staff, through their performances and the results they obtain. It is a group that is really united and unique with a mix of foreigners and French people who work very well together. They are an exceptional group, and I will continue to take care of them and be kind to them. Ultimately, we are like a little family.”
“To young people, I would like to say that it is a superb profession and that you should come to it. It is important that we have young people, and not just girls, who are involved because we are the actresses and actors of tomorrow for the development of women’s football. It is important to get involved on the technical side but also on the management and organization side to move things forward and develop women’s football so that there is real recognition of this sport in France. Get involved in women’s football clubs from a young age, you will flourish there.”
Rosemary impressed me with her maturity and her determination to move things forward in women’s football. She reassured me that this job as Team Manager & Player Care was more than important for the future of women’s football and that it deserves to come out of the shadows and finally be in the light.
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