Sainsily compared to Doué over toxic relationship, Margot Dumont denounces sexist backlash

Virginie Sainsily found herself at the centre of a social media controversy following a notable appearance on L’Équipe TV after France’s match against Belgium on Monday evening in Brussels.

To illustrate Désiré Doué’s inconsistency since the start of the season, the journalist chose a romantic metaphor. “You’re dragging us into a toxic relationship where at first, you give us everything and we all fall in love with you. And then you ghost us. You reply once in a while. Tonight, you show up dressed to the nines with your bouquet of flowers and dinner invitation. We want that every night Désiré! We’re in 2026, we want healthy relationships and we want to be able to love you with all our hearts,” she said, calling on the Paris player to reproduce this level of performance more consistently.

The context lent credibility to the analysis: fielded by Zinédine Zidane in a reshuffled eleven, Doué delivered a complete performance against the Red Devils, proving constantly threatening without finding the back of the net.

While some social media users commented on the substance of her intervention, others targeted Sainsily’s very legitimacy as a woman in football. It was this second wave of reactions that provoked Margot Dumont’s indignation. The Canal+ journalist chose not to weigh in on the relevance of the comparison, but bluntly condemned the sexist comments. “Can we talk about the comments under this post? If a man had said that, would you have reacted the same way? I don’t think so. Can we stop reducing us to our status as women whenever we speak or don’t speak? I’m not judging the substance, I’m only talking about the sexist reactions and comments,” she wrote.

The sequence thus shifted the debate: from the relevance of a metaphor about Doué’s performances, the discussion moved to the place of women journalists in football and the pressures they remain exposed to whenever they speak publicly.