A Fantastic Lilian Thuram Article

I’d been planning to write up something on France’s most-capped player Lilian Thuram and his interesting involvement in French politics, but I hadn’t had the time or energy to do the necessary translations from the French articles. In this case, procrastination was my friend. This article says it all and more. There have been links to this posted all over the net, but in case you’re a Lilian Thuram fan who hasn’t seen it yet, here’s the link:

Lilian Thuram article.

What I love about Thuram is that he’s true to who he is and what he believes. He doesn’t pretend to believe things because it will make good press, and he doesn’t alter his opinions because others might not like what he has to say. I think he’s probably the most genuine voice in French football (and possibly in football worldwide) today.

From the article:

‘Thuram has not forgotten us,’ says Imed, a football fan of Tunisian origin, as we drink in the bar Les Tontons in southern Paris. ‘That’s what people don’t like about him. He’s hard like us.’

And:

In the age of multimillionaire footballers and their opportunistic agents, Thuram’s honesty and self-deprecating humour provide a refreshing dose of common sense in a narcissistic and often decadent game.

And what about life after football?

‘Football,’ he says, as we speed into the busy centre of the Catalan capital, ‘can teach you about life but it is no substitute for life, if you see what I mean, for the real world, for real problems, real conflicts.’ He turns to me and flashes another quick grin. ‘And that,’ he says, ‘is where I think I am going.’

Damn, I love this guy!