Cyril Moine, France fitness coach, puts graft first and does not aim to please players | OneFootball

Cyril Moine, 54, France's fitness coach, is an unashamed taskmaster who prizes graft over popularity. According to L'Équipe, he works largely alone and sets unglamorous drills that players may not enjoy.

His approach diverges from big-club performance departments. He uses modern tech but manages GPS and analysis himself, with a particular focus on heart-rate data.

With him, conditioning is rarely folded into games, and sessions can pass without a ball as dressing-room chatter fades. He argues game-based work lets some slip through and leave the group undertrained. Repetitive runs and fixed targets are used to build both fitness and resilience.

The stance brings resistance, yet he embraces it and avoids cultivating friendships with players or asking favours. He calls himself a football man, and once played right-back up to CFA level at Dijon.

He is praised by Vahid Halilhodzic, who worked with him at Rennes and Paris-SG, then with Algeria and Japan. The Bosnian values his credibility, authority and habit of leading drills from the front, plus his eye for anyone ducking the work.

Moine has overseen France's conditioning since 2019 after replacing Grégory Dupont, retaining his Nantes job until 2021. Before the United States trip, he squeezed in three half-days from arrival at Clairefontaine and two morning blocks to test cardio.

He relishes the national-team luxury of full control over workloads, unlike in clubs with personal trainers around players. He also accepts that if bodies break, he stands alongside the medical staff in the firing line, and he is unlikely to change.

Source: L'Équipe