Léo Barré from his Versailles debut to training with the French national team. (A. Mounic/L'Équipe)
Léo Barré (21) is set to make his first selection for the French national team at fullback against Wales on Sunday. Find out more about this golden boy, who trained as an opener in Versailles and comes from a family of rugby players handed down from father to son over several generations.
Let's start with a secret. When he started out, Léo Barré wore the colors of two clubs! Don't worry, there's a statute of limitations. Here are some explanations. The new Les Bleus full-back started playing rugby at the age of 6 and a half. In Versailles in the Yvelines (78), where his father, Arnaud, played fly-half and now coaches the under-18s. His paternal grandfather, Michel, also has a long history with the Yvelines club. First as an educator, then as president in the mid-1970s.
Even his paternal great-grandfather, Marcel, whom he never knew, tried his hand at the oval ball as a prop in Chevreuse (Yvelines). However, when Léo first set foot on the pitch at the Porchefontaine stadium in Versailles, accompanied by his younger brother Louis, at the start of the 2008 school year, "neither of them got the hang of it" recalls his father. The latter is not the type to push his two fistlings.
"He reminds me of Romain Ntamack. Léo knows what he wants and takes it one step at a time."
Antoine Ratinaud, Barré's advisor