It’s not easy to miss Marie-Antoinette Katoto. Standing at 1.77m, she is the second tallest outfield player in the French team, after captain Wendie Renard.
She’s also a real handful on the pitch; quick and agile, always making runs off the ball, dominating her opponents in the air and beating them one-on-one. The Paris Saint-Germain striker has spent a number of years impressing in the French top flight, where she finished as the league’s top scorer on three occasions, in 2018/19 (22 goals), 2019/20 (16) and 2021/22 (18).
Colombia had a front row seat to witness the full range of the 26-year-old’s talent on Thursday 25 July, when she scored twice in a 3-2 victory at Stade de Lyon on the opening day of the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.
“She’s a very strong and dynamic player who’s very intelligent on and off the ball,” said Colombian central defender Jorelyn Carabali, who spoke exclusively to FIFA after the match. “We were aware of her strength in the air and her off the ball movement. We tried to communicate and stay focused defensively to prevent her from playing at 100%, but she did her job well by moving around a lot.”
The French no9 has come a long way since suffering a serious injury in July 2022 during the UEFA Women’s Euro in England. She missed out on the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™, not making her return to the pitch until September last year. Is she making up for lost time?
“As far as I’m concerned, you can’t turn the clock back,” she told FIFA after the match on Thursday. “I try to make the most of every moment and give my all. What’s happened is behind me, I’ve moved on and now I’m pushing forward. I missed competing and [coming back] takes hard work and, most importantly, patience.”
Katoto’s patience has clearly paid off and she remains a deadly presence for France, having grabbed 32 goals in just 42 appearances for the national team. An added bonus for Les Bleues is that when Katoto scores, France win. The Olympic hosts have won all of the 22 matches when she has donned the country’s colours and scored.
“I try to contribute as much as I can, and I give 100% in every match,” she said nonchalantly. Katoto has scored 6 goals in 10 matches since her return and is also the second Frenchwoman, after Louisa Necib at Rio 2016 (in a 3-0 group stage win over New Zealand), to score twice at the Olympic Games. It also came almost a year after her strike partner Kadidiatou Diani became the first Frenchwoman to score a hat-trick at the World Cup.
“I think we’re lucky to have such high-quality forwards in this team,” she added. “Everyone’s trying to do their bit and that’s good for the team. I like Kadi and hopefully she’ll score plenty of goals at these Olympics and make a difference. There’s no competition between us. We push each other forward.”
While Katoto brushed aside the question of her personal performance, her captain and legendary French defender Wendie Renard clearly understood how important this little piece of history was.
“I’m happy for her,” said Renard. “These goals will help her confidence, and they’ll help us too because she’s our top striker. She has to keep up the good form.”
Maybe one day Katoto will also be able to haul in her captain, who is France’s leading scorer, with 38 goals to her name. Renard is now just six ahead of the Parisian. Who knows, with such an impressive goal ratio, she could well reach it at the Paris 2024 final on 10 August.
