Above: Pierre-Alain Picard (right) with some of his staff. Photo: Jean-Pierre Thiesset for Impetus.
by Jean-Pierre Thiesset (8/19/25).
Pierre-Alain Picard, 34 years old, was appointed DFCO Women coach on July 1st, 2025, to replace Sébastien Joseph whose assistant he was last season.
Pierre-Alain Picard joined DFCO in 2017 as U14 boys coach and then becomes already women D1 team assistant coach in 2019. In 2022 he takes charge of the women’s training centre (one of the only five women’s training centre in France) and is appointed women U19 coach with very good results.
After having finished 4th of Arkema Première Ligue in an exceptional season in 2024-2025, some departures of key players, arrivals of young players and a change of head coach, Dijon is calmly preparing for the new 2025-2026 season.
Among departures, several key players including Léna Goetsch, who was also the team captain and Océane Picard. Among arrivals, Colette Ndzana (defender), Dominica Kopinska (forward), Emmi Siren (defender), Olivia Dowin (midfielder) and Aïrine Fontaine (forward). Among players who continue the adventure, Katriina Talaslahti (goalkeeper), Nadia Krezyman (midfielder), Meriame Terchoun (midfielder), Lina Gay (midfielder), Noémie Carage (defender), Chengshu Wu (forward), Yanwen Wang (forward) and Léa Declercq (midfielder).
On August 14, before the interview of Pierre-Alain Picard, I attended the training session which was advanced at 9 AM to limit the impact of the high temperatures. Even though it was 25 degrees at 9 AM and 30 degrees at the end of the session at 10:30 AM, this training session was not easy for the players. After a muscle warm-up, some very interesting and very intelligent specific sessions combining physical and tactical training made the players suffer a little. Before the start of the training session, Pierre-Alain Picard explained one of the objectives of the today’s sessions for the players was to carry out exercises allowing them to consider a 4-1-4-1 composition during matches. A session of corner kicks and free kicks ended the training session in which the main objective was to have goalkeepers work with their defenders, some of whom are new.
Meriame Terchoun, the Swiss member of the group, told me at the end of training session that these were good sessions, necessary but tiring, especially that with the high temperatures, the players had difficulty sleeping properly and therefore recovering well at night.
Interview with Pierre-Alain Picard:
Jean-Pierre Thiesset: How does it feel to finally be the head coach this season?
Pierre-Alain Picard: No, not finally, It’s something that has been prepared, at club level and for me it has also been prepared individually through various training sessions, and then of course it is quite dizzying at the start because it’s completely different.
JPT: Coming back after being assistant coach and taking over the same team must help a little, even if there have been several changes of players?
PAP: Yes, there are more parameters, not that we control, but that we know; whether it is the players, the championship, the history of the club and the history of the team, it is very important, and it allows us to have, let’s say, a little help at the start because everything doesn’t change.
And indeed there have been a lot of player movements; so after a good season, it’s normal, today I also think that it is Dijon’s ranking that wants that, we are the springboard to other clubs or even other championships, hoping that one day it will be the opposite, but you have to be patient and humble for that. But it is normal that there are a lot of changes, there are players who discover new championships or who join the top 3 in France, that is good, it shows that we did good work.
I think we have lost some experienced players, especially compared to our league, but we have some real players with potential who have arrived. Now it is going to take a little time between integration and discovering the league, but we have new players with enormous qualities: Emmi Siren, Finnish, right defender, Olivia Dowin, Polish, left midfielder, and Aïrine Fontaine, forward, who really struggled to confirm because she lacked consistency and playing regularly but she is still a very young player. That is why I think we have lost experience and maturity but that despite everything we have recovered young players who know international teams and who already seem to show a certain maturity, but we will see if that is confirmed during matches when we are behind or when we are going to lead and in the management of match time.
JPT: For her second year, when we see Nadia Krezyman, who is only 21 years old, who “grumbles” when she does not succeed at something, does that demonstrate a great desire to do well?
PAP: Yes, that is good, it is the advantage of youth where there is this little carelessness of trying at the start and it is his attitude behind it which is very positive.
JPT: I think the team’s strong point last season was partly its cohesion, won’t the changes risk disrupting that?
PAP: We obviously started from scratch a little bit, then we also focused a lot of the preparation on the moments of living together to recreate that. After last season we had players of great talent anyway, so, yes, the cohesion, but in the matches where we were badly led it was the talent that made us win the matches and that also made us exist in the matches against the top 6 teams. Here we are recreating something, we are starting a new cycle with new players.
JPT: Is the goal this season to do as well as last season?
PAP: Today there is no real ranking objective. The club’s objective in the very short term is to establish itself in the top 6; if we can already be regularly in the top 6 that will be good. The objective is also to develop what we do in the game because despite everything we remain a team and a club that played rather low with a lot of transitions, the idea is to be a little more active and to dictate the balance of power a little. To be active instead of being reactive. To be less in adaptation in relation to the opponent.
The objectives, really, they are there, after, a successful season will necessarily be a top 6. And after I think that it is a bit like last season where we had built a little match by match, and at one point we said to ourselves but it’s possible in fact, we’ll see how it goes. It also avoids putting additional pressure on us.
I would like to thank the Dijon staff for their welcome during the training session, Rosemary Durand for organizing the day and Pierre-Alain Picard for his availability and for answering all my questions without avoiding anything.
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