Stéphanie Frappart was the first woman to referee in the men’s World Cup final phase, at the end of 2022, in Qatar. Which earned this discreet 40-year-old sportswoman, born in Plessis-Bouchard (Val-d’Oise), the honors of all the international press, from New York Times has El País. Before that, she was the first woman to referee in the second division, Ligue 1, the European Super Cup and the Champions League. She is the only French professional referee.
I wouldn’t have gotten here if…
…If I hadn’t been passionate about football, born into a family where everyone played, starting with my father. My mother took us to her matches on Sundays. I have three brothers and a sister. When I was a child, I played in the schoolyard, then in the evening we all played together as a family. When I was 10, I joined a club. Then, quite quickly, around the age of 13, I turned to arbitration. I was curious about the rules, I wanted to learn.
What did your parents do?
My father comes from Lorraine, he was a worker in a factory. My mother is Portuguese. She emigrated to France in the mid-1970s, with her parents and siblings, to find work. They settled in a small village near Lunéville [Meurthe-et-Moselle]. My mother was hired in a local factory. My parents met in Lorraine at the end of the 1970s.
Quite quickly, they had to leave, because the factories were closing one after the other. They found work in the Paris region, in Val-d’Oise, where I was born. My mother, who had five children, stopped working for a while before becoming a childminder.
Do you have a link with Portugal?
No. We went there two or three times on vacation, that’s all. On the other hand, we went to Lorraine every summer to meet my father’s family. We were staying at the campsite. We were close to nature, and we had great freedom. Our parents took us hiking, fishing, picking mushrooms and blueberries… Even today, I like to take refuge in the mountains, or in the countryside, to breathe.
What family atmosphere did you grow up in?
My parents being practicing Catholics, before we were old enough to make our own choices, we accompanied them to mass. At the factory, my father worked three shifts, it was very tiring. He had a quirky life, but was always there for us. The family climate was loving and harmonious. In our house, there were rules, and you had to stick to them.
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