Manssita Traoré faces challenges. The Strasbourg footballer shared her thoughts in an interview with L’Equipe. She discussed her mental health, her struggles, and issued a poignant call for help.
“I am self-destructing because I am suffering internally, I suffer in silence and I continue to cling to emptiness,” she wrote on Instagram on her 23rd birthday, September 9. When asked to talk about what she has been “going through for several years,” the forward was very candid.
A difficult childhood, unresolved psychological wounds, panic attacks. Manssita Traoré recalls painful moments. “I went through some pretty complicated things during my childhood. I left home very early, even though I was very close to my family. The wounds were always present, and the separation didn’t help. During my first separation, I was at INSEP, just 10 minutes from home, but I cried every night. I faked injuries to be able to go home. My first selections were also hard to cope with. I started to suffer, to fall into depression. I had panic attacks. I didn’t talk to anyone about it. When I played football, I showed nothing. But at some point, when you put in the effort and, deep down, things are really not okay, it starts to show. I am not superhuman. I began to lose a lot of weight, to be absent, I even had fainting spells. This worried my family. That’s when I started receiving support. It’s difficult, but I’m starting to feel better little by little,” the former PSG player recounted in her interview with L’Equipe.
She acknowledges that these struggles have impacted her career. “At the end of each season, I think about taking a break to take the time to heal,” admits Manssita Traoré. However, she refuses to give up. Because, as she emphasizes, “I have made many sacrifices to reach this level. My deep attachment to football has always outweighed the reasons that could push me to stop.”
Currently receiving psychological support, Manssita Traoré remains positive and hopeful. “I am convinced that all these trials have a purpose and that I am capable of overcoming them, that something better awaits me at the end of the road.”
