COUPE DE FRANCE: THE GREAT RÉUNION
Rising up from where he had just crumpled in a heap on the ground, Ryan Ponti yells a roar of celebration before sprinting towards a horde of fans congregated on his side of the stadium. As he dances from one foot to the other in a jig of joy, his body language reveals the sense of delirious disbelief at what he’s done. With 14 minutes remaining on the clock, Ponti has put Saint-Pierroise on their way to making history – and he sure knows it.
The massed throng of supporters, many in the black and white colours of their beloved club, generate so much energy that it looks as though they might spill over the edge of the stands and onto the pitch. They all know what this means, too.
These are the heroes of JS Saint-Pierroise (or JSSP), the leading club of Saint-Pierre on Réunion; a volcanic island housing just under 900,000 people, lying above a hotspot on the earth’s crust. It is 9,000 kilometres from the French mainland and 90 minutes by plane from the east coast of Madagascar, but here they are in the Coupe de France, taking on the professional might of Ligue 2 side Niort. And here they are, triumphing once again.
Réunion is officially an overseas department and region of France, which is why the game in question – a last-64 domestic cup clash – is even taking place at all on this sunny but chilly Saturday afternoon on the mainland. A delightful quirk of the Coupe de France is that the French FA (FFF) allows its overseas sides (or DOM-TOM clubs, to use the catchy acronym) to play in the competition – and FourFourTwo is here to see the last of them standing in this year’s competition.
“THERE ARE 14 TEAMS IN
