2023-06-15 11:48:37
Six-time Swiss champion with FC Zurich, two Euros with the national team and now a professional footballer at Dijon FCO: Meriame Terchoun has already had some wonderful moments in her career. But the Zurich native also had three major injuries and depression that made her who she is today.
Noon has just struck when Meriame Terchoun joins us following her training in the stands of the stadium where the Dijon FCO players play. A simple look at her knees reminds us that the attacker has come a long way. At 27, she has already suffered three cruciate ligament tears in the knee in the space of 4 years (2016, 2017 and 2019).
“The first tear was very hard, admits the Swiss. I didn’t even know what this ligament was and what this injury involved. Mentally it was difficult.” Combative, Meriame Terchoun still manages to recover in time for Euro 2017, where she will play a few minutes once morest France.
But 3 months later, history repeats itself. His right knee gives out once more. Worse, while she is on her hospital bed, she is fired by her employer. It’s too much for the Zurich woman, who falls into depression. Meriame Terchoun does not hide it. Quite the contrary. She wants to see more talk regarding mental health in sport. “We are human beings, not robots. Sometimes it’s really not easy to ask for help or to go see a shrink. But it has to be known, that we talk regarding it. I find that it’s incredibly important, because we can all help each other.”
I take even more pleasure than before because I know that it will stop
![Meriame Terchoun found the strength to overcome three injuries and depression. [Manuel Geisser - Imago]](https://www.rts.ch/2023/06/13/13/16/14098655.image?w=320&h=320)
Many would then have given up. But not Meriame Terchoun, who is recovering from this new blow. “Everyone told me to quit football, but playing football was really what I wanted to do. So I tried everything to come back. But yes, it was hard. took time and it also taught me a lot”confides with sincerity the Swiss international.
In 2019, fate persists. Meriame Terchoun tore her cruciate ligaments in her left knee this time. Exhausted by the accumulation of her jobs, football and her injuries, the attacker decides to drop everything and heads to Qatar, where she finds part of her family – her father is Algerian – and takes the opportunity to learn the ‘Arab. “I had to change everything, take time for myself. I found myself.” In Doha, she also resumed playing football with a local women’s team and found “the pleasure of playing.”
This trip will act as an electric shock for the Zurich native. “It changed my vision of my injury. I said to myself that I should not only come back for football, but also to be fit for my post-career. It made me realize that life is very short. Everything that comes now is positive. Today, I enjoy it even more than before, because I know that one day it will stop.”
I’m someone who’s not afraid to say things
She is like that Meriame Terchoun. Positive, thoughtful and determined. A determination that accompanies him even in his commitments. The Swiss international is committed to making her voice heard to defend women’s football and the causes that are close to her heart. “I feel that I have a responsibility today to do this because I have the opportunity to do it and because I want things to really change because the girls deserve it.”
The striker, who worked for the players’ union, is one of the co-initiators of the Manifesto for women’s football “forza le donne”, aimed at promoting women’s football and its professionalization in Switzerland. She also does not hesitate to use social networks or to contact young people, as recently at the general culture school in Delémont, to get her ideas across. “I also try to encourage the girls in my team and the girls in the national team to talk regarding certain things, like the rules, because it’s important.”
Meriame Terchoun therefore dares to say what she thinks. A frankness that she demonstrates on and off the field. “I am someone who is not afraid to say things. I remain myself, authentic. I am the same Meriame as in football.”
Dijon, Jennifer Ballmer and Ludovic Perruchoud
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