![\"Spain](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1318214_1779129_Nomad_akhbar.jpg\")
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Spain defender Robin Le Normand poses before an interview with AFP ahead of the Nations League Final Four football match between Spain and France. \u2014 AFP\/File<\/p>\n
MADRID: Spain defender Robin Le Normand bears \u201cno resentment\u201d towards France, he explained before a Nations League semi-final clash against the country of his birth on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Atletico Madrid centre-back, born in the Brittany region of France, obtained Spanish nationality in May 2023 and has gone on to become a regular for La Roja. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente brought the defender into the fold during the last Nations League final four, and they won it before triumphing at Euro 2024 last summer, where he started in the final against England.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no resentment or (thinking) \u00b4I made the right choice\u00b4… I never felt that way,\u201d Le Normand told AFP at Spain\u00b4s training centre Las Rozas. \u201cI give my all and try to repay the trust, striving to give my full potential and my best version on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Le Normand, who played at youth level for French side Brest, joined Basque country club Real Sociedad in 2016. France coach Didier Deschamps told Le Normand he liked his football but did not call up for national team duty and Spain pounced, just as they did for Aymeric Laporte in 2021 and Diego Costa back in 2013. Spain beat France in the Euro 2024 semi-finals but Le Normand was suspended and could not face Les Bleus.<\/p>\n
On Thursday in Stuttgart he is in line to start but does not feel he is under the microscope because of his origins more than any of his team-mates. \u201cIt\u00b4s a match with a special kind of pressure because it\u00b4s still a semi-final, with the importance of representing a country, wanting to do things right, and trying to repay the trust they\u00b4ve always placed in me,\u201d said Le Normand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u00b4s where the pressure mainly comes from.\u201d This season was not the easiest for Le Normand on a personal level after clashing heads with Real Madrid\u00b4s Aurelien Tchouameni in a derby clash in October.<\/p>\n
It left Le Normand with a traumatic brain injury, which took him nearly three months to recover from. \u201cI\u00b4ve taken several hits before, so initially I didn\u00b4t really take it seriously… (then) the symptoms remind you that it\u00b4s serious,\u201d said Le Normand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you want to get back on the bike, when you just want to go up the stairs, your brain ultimately tells you no, you can\u00b4t. \u201cWell, you can — but you\u00b4re tired, you\u00b4re out of breath, it spins. It\u00b4s quite striking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Le Normand was out for nearly three months, and it took him longer to get back to his best, which he managed in the final weeks of the season. \u201cWearing the helmet during recovery wasn\u00b4t easy, but, it was necessary,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think now it\u00b4s been 15 to 20 matches where we\u00b4ve tried to get back into the rhythm. Now, I feel really good. \u201cI\u00b4ve felt good for the past 10 matches. We\u00b4re trying to continue along this path.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reward for that could come against France as Spain try to become the first team to defend the Nations League trophy. Spain\u00b4s triumph against France last summer was inspired by a sensational goal from Barcelona\u00b4s teenage winger Lamine Yamal.<\/p>\n
Le Normand is grateful every time he can avoid facing the 17-year-old star in training. \u201cI prefer having him on my team rather than going up one-on-one against him… we\u00b4ve had a few games this year against Barca, and we sometimes feel a bit powerless,\u201d said the centre-back. \u201cHe is 17 years old and has already played an incredible number of matches at an extraordinary level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain defender Robin Le Normand poses before an interview with AFP ahead of the Nations League Final Four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[16431,60055,2000,299,36,19772,6802,19773,66340,3577,66341,7210],"class_list":{"0":"post-156221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-clash","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-has","14":"tag-le","15":"tag-no","16":"tag-normand","17":"tag-of","18":"tag-resentment","19":"tag-spains"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114622460713656610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}