On paper, the challenge is not so huge between the 7th in N2 and the penultimate in National.
It is therefore with serenity that Beauvais is preparing to welcome Boulogne, this Friday (9 p.m.), in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France.
"I have a good feeling for the team," warns Mathieu Duhamel, the Beauvaisian striker who scored a hat-trick in the previous round.
She is focused like never before and has no particular pressure.
I have some high level experience to think so.
"
With more than 400 professional games (and 152 goals) in fifteen seasons, the 36-year-old Normand is one of Beauvais' major assets.
Arrived last summer in Oise, the former Ligue 1 player with Caen and Evian-Thonon (30 games in 2014-2015) is faithful to his convictions.
“In life, I walk with the blows of heart, explains the one who drives 1 h 45 from his home in Barentin to go to each training.
Human relationships are essential for me.
If I am in Beauvais, it is because I still had some under my feet and that the feeling passed with the leaders.
"
Eleven clubs and a unique course
During his professional career, enamelled by eleven clubs, Mathieu Duhamel has known everything.
Varied experiences in the secondary divisions, the particular taste of the elite, many joys and some sorrows, and unwavering friendships.
Above all, he quickly forged a reputation as a stubborn player with a mind of steel, which actually hides a heart as big as that.
At 13, he joined the INF Clairefontaine, where he only stayed two years.
“I was running very fast but I was shorter than average (1.52m).
I felt like a kid playing with adults.
"Thirty centimeters later, he spends all his evenings at the gym to gain muscle:" I had only one goal: to succeed.
I did it all on my own, without going through a training center.
Everywhere I went, I had to score to go further.
"
At 22, while in Quevilly, he knocked on the door of FC Rouen.
the National club took him as a 4th attacker and then established him ... six months later.
Romorantin, Laval, Créteil (National), Troyes, Metz and Caen (Ligue 2): Mathieu Duhamel shakes the nets and climbs the ranks one by one to L1, always with Caen, then Evian-Thonon.
Christophe Galtier and ASSE are interested and then change their minds.
Taking a 30-year-old player is complicated, and therefore a return to Ligue 2 in Le Havre for the warrior.
"The impression of being a gladiator"
“I have always been a man of my word and of challenge,” smiles the striker.
I liked it when I was neglected.
When a coach replaced me, I first shouted out and then proved to him on the pitch that he was wrong.
What transcends me in a match is the spectacle.
It makes me feel like a gladiator.
I even prefer people to hate me.
It puts positive pressure on me.
Those who don't know me talk about me negatively when I have never crushed anyone!
"
Under contract with Beauvais until the end of the season, the “Viking” does not know if he will stop.
“I will be 37 in July and as I am physically well, anything is possible.
It's a matter of fun and time.
With the Covid, I had to put my event room rental company on hold.
I am waiting to see how the situation will evolve.
For the moment, I want to continue living the great adventure with my club.
"