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The Guardian - UK

Sport

Luke Entwistle in Roussillon

Seventh-tier players, a new app and togetherness: inside New Caledonia’s unlikely World Cup tilt

New New Caledonia World Caledonia Cup World Cup Football

The New Caledonia international Titouan Richard leans against a fence — New Caledonia’s Titouan Richard says: ‘It has never happened that a Régional 2 player is two matches away from the World Cup.’ Photograph: Nicolas Eudeline/The Guardian

Roussillon is a small town nestled in the Rhône valley, about 40 minutes south of Lyon by car, and a reminder that the most extraordinary stories can hide in the most ordinary of places. One player says “the town doesn’t ‘live’ for [its] club”, but as you head through the town centre and towards Salaise Rhodia’s stadium, you begin to doubt whether the town lives at all; welcome to a Sunday in rural France.

Around 30 minutes before the start of the game, the single stand begins to fill. Everyone seems to know each other in some way. Entry is free for what is a top of the table encounter in the Régional 2, the seventh tier of French football, against Craponne AS.

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