Valkyries Julie Vanloo, Cecilia Zandalasini and Carla Leite interview

Vanloo is the European group's interpreter and leader

Video of the press conference, 2025-05-08

Rough transcript of interview, 2025-05-08

Interviewer: First question for Julie. Coach Nat has said that you serve kind of as a translator behind the scenes for all the different languages that are on the team. Do you feel like your linguistic facilitation helps with your point guard abilities and really being that floor general for the team?

Julie Vanloo: Yeah, definitely. I remember when I was young, school wasn't my first priority. I just wanted to play basketball. But I knew when I was in school, languages was the most important thing because I knew that would take me to the next level in basketball. I was very, very motivated to learn languages. So definitely it helps to communicate with my teammates and to help out left and right and to quickly switch up in my head to speak a different language. Because let's be honest, it's not easy for the other team. If you talk French, they don't understand. So it can help. So yeah.

Interviewer: Julia, I'm just curious if you could clarify for us how many languages you speak and which languages those are.

Julie Vanloo: My mother language is Belgian, like Flemish. Second language is English. And I also speak French. And I actually do speak a little Italian. So yeah. So I speak with Ceci sometimes Italian. So I can definitely have some conversations in Italian. And I do understand it. So yeah, that's it.

Interviewer: Carla, I'm just curious, what's your WNBA experience been like just coming over here for the first time and how do you feel like you're adapting?

Carla Leite: My English is not very good so I will try to be clear but I was very nervous about that because I don't know I don't know all the structure so it's complicated but I need to improve with my English but I'm so happy to be here and Julie helped me a lot so it's more easy to me and it's my first experience but it's my goal too so I'm so happy to be to be here.

Interviewer: Julie and Ceci, what's it been like to play with Carla and how have you seen her grow?

Julie Vanloo: Carla is somebody that I've been watching since a long time. I watched European basketball, I played in the French League, I saw her grow. I think she's an amazing player and the thing that she has.

Already for her age. I talked about it the other day with my mom is that she's young but she has already so much experience. She's playing already in such a mature way because she's been playing in France in a very good league. She won the Euro Cup. Those are big games. Those are games with a lot of stress. She played in front of big crowds. So yeah, Carla's a great player. She's shifty. She's quick. She's fearless on the court. She's gonna be, if everything goes well obviously, and don't fly now, she's gonna be a great player. A big one.

Interviewer: My question is for Carla.

[in French] Yes, I speak French. How are you? Welcome. Your English is perfect. Really.

What are the things that since you arrived, since you started playing? We know that there are a lot of international players in your team, not in my French, which is a bit disappointing, but there are things that are a bit different between the two groups. What are the things that you learn from your game and from the American game?

Carla Leite: [in French] I think that the American game is a lot more physical. There are a lot more positions, we play a lot faster. I think I have to adapt to that. I have to learn new rules every day, because it's not the same rules in FIBA and WNBA. It's true that sometimes it's not easy, but there are a lot more athletic things, so I have to adapt to that.

Interviewer: This is a question for all of you, so feel free, whoever would like to jump in. You know, I think talking to the fans, Valkyrie's fans, right, they were so excited for this team. Then they learned that there's all of these international players. They might not have known you guys as well as some of the American players, but clearly they were very excited during the first game. Julie, just thinking of you, we had several players after the game asking us who you were, kind of where you were from, your story. Did you feel that when you guys were on the court? Did you feel like the fans starting to get behind you? And are you excited to kind of get to know them better?

Julie Vanloo: I kind of felt at home straight away. I thrive of a big crowd people that are loud and people that appreciate basketball and women's basketball, especially. We're very big in Belgium in our national team in our basketball Belgium. We have a lot of people we had 20,000 people coming to games for just a qualifier for your basket. So it I like that. It's just something that gives me confidence gives me wings to fly. It's not making me nervous or you know, I just I open up even more and I like that cuz like that you can interact with the crowd you feel like they're behind you we came back mostly because I said this to in another interview so you feel like you're with six not with five on the court because they push you so much so they don't know is yet maybe but I felt like in one minute that was just done. They were just like, all right, this is our team. This is the Bay Area and we're just together in this story. So it was a quick turnaround I think for them to get to know us.

Interviewer: Ceci, just how are you doing? You missed the last game with a foot injury. How are you feeling? Do you feel ready to go for Phoenix?

Ceci Zandalasini: Yeah, I feel good just taking it day by day. Just try to stay with the team as much as possible. Always watching practice because there's always something new to learn. So I'm just trying to stay connected with everybody. And yeah, just see day by day. But I feel good. I feel great. So yeah. Thanks.

Interviewer: Carla, you're coming off a Euro Cup finals MVP run. You're guard of the year in Euro Cup. Obviously, that's a really good league. I'm curious if there was something during that finals run where you felt like you unlocked another part of your game.

[Carla and Julie speak in French]

Vanloo: She says that even when she's young, she showed that she can show her maturity. And she knew she had to step up, and she already had a lot of responsibility. And then in stressful situations, she had to stay calm. This was a new situation to her. And I think she obviously did that very well.

Interviewer: Julie, how special is this for you to be able to use your language skills and help everyone when it's a new team, and everybody's learning each other and different cultures? And maybe could you take us through your studies as a child to learn all the languages a little bit.

Julie Vanloo: In Belgium, at six, we start with French and English songs. So we just sing the songs, and so we start to know the words. It's like, "Franfrolu, j'ai une poupée." "Franfrolu, j'ai une poupée." You know, you sing like, "Oh, she's a doll," and you start to learn. And then slowly you step up to the next level. Then when we go to high school, when we're 12 years old, we really start to drill it. We start to learn it with English and French. And yeah, it's like six to nine hours per week. We really learn English and French in Belgium. All our series and even our cartoons are in English. We use subtitles or French. So that's how we actually learn the accent and everything. So that's for all the kids out there. Languages is important. It's an advantage. I think you're rich when you know multiple languages because it's just easy to communicate and to create a bond with people.

Interviewer: Did you always love it or?

Julie Vanloo: Not always, I struggled. I struggle, I sometimes still make mistakes. I think Carla sometimes is like, what, that mixed words or like, because it's so much, you know, I'm translating in Flemish, English, French, like, but yeah, I liked it because I had a goal. My goal was to come, to play professional and to come to the league one day. And that if I have a goal, nobody's gonna stop me.

Interviewer: You probably didn't realize how much you would use those languages.

Julie Vanloo: I realized.

Interviewer: You did, you did.

Julie Vanloo: Yes, 'cause I wanted this. And I'm telling you, when I want something, I'm gonna do it until, yeah, I can't.

Interviewer: Thank you.

Julie Vanloo: Thank you guys. Thanks. Thank you.