France sets its sights on the gold medal in blind football at the Paris Paralympics 

In the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, blind football players hoping to compete for the French national team train every week under coach Samir Gassama, the co-founder of Bondy Cécifoot Club. 

Blind football, an adaptation of soccer as it is known in the US, is one of the most-popular sports at the Paralympic Games, which kick off in Paris in August. Eight teams, including Brazil, France, Turkey, Morocco, China, Argentina, Colombia and Japan, have been selected to compete at the Games. 

In the first round of blind football, France, the European champion, will face gold-medal winners, including Brazil, which has dominated at the Paralympics since blind football was first officially included in the Games in 2004. 

“We’re hoping we will take home a medal, but it will be hard,” Gassama said.

In blind football, or cécifoot as it’s known in France, four of the five players on each team are partially or fully blind and wear blacked-out eye masks so everyone has the same level of blindness. 

The fifth player, the goalkeeper on each team, is sighted. The football is specially designed with bells inside so the players can locate it easily.

On the pitch, players constantly shout “voy, voy,” a Spanish term meaning “I’m going” — a nod to the sport’s origins in Spain in the 1920s — to indicate their positions to other teammates. 

During the match, several coaches for each side call out instructions. In the stands, though, the fans are urged to remain silent, Gassama said — the players need to be able to concentrate.

“It’s like a tennis match,” Gassama said. “If there is too much noise off the pitch, the referee will stop the game and call for silence.”

Martin Baron, 36, a 20-year veteran of blind football, plays on the Bondy Cécifoot Club. 

Baron, who’s been blind since birth, is a software engineer. He was just picked this week for the French team at the Paris Paralympics.

Baron already has a silver medal from the London Paralympics in 2012. He said that part of the attraction for him is the competitive nature of the sport. 

“But honestly, winning or losing, just playing with this team gives me such pleasure,” he said.

Mamadou Thiam started playing the sport as a teenager growing up in Mali. Thiam, who now lives in Paris, works full-time as a legal assistant. Like Baron, he was born blind and said he dreamed of being a professional soccer player as a young boy.

“Playing this game lets me feel like I’m fulfilling that dream,” he said. 

Thiam won’t be playing for the French national team this summer — “But when Mali qualifies, then, I will play for my home country,” he smiled.