What if Maxime Mermoz, 35 selections with the Blues, competed in the 2023 World Cup in France with… Algeria?
The hypothesis, eccentric a few months ago, is now within the realm of possibility.
The Algerian Federation has started the procedures with World Rugby to try to qualify the player, who has dual nationality.
"There is a possibility: without any selection for six years, and through the VII Olympic, a player can play for another selection," says Mourad Gherbi, vice-president of the Federation.
Maxime Mermoz, however, has just announced the end of his career.
“It's not that I don't want to play rugby anymore;
it's just that I don't want to sacrifice everything to this sport anymore, ”he explains.
The former Toulousain, Perpignanais and Toulonnais, after having tasted it, more than ever wants freedom.
He nevertheless received proposals to dive again that he has so far declined.
“I don't see what more I could do in rugby,” he insists.
There are the constraints, the violence of the shocks.
Above all, there is the feeling that I can now do what I want, when I want.
Life goes by fast!
Today, I just want to enjoy, to discover, to rediscover, and to live.
Like that day last week, when some friends, getting ready to parachute, give him a call.
Mermoz comes back fissa: "I've been wanting it for ten years, but each time it was impossible!"
Now it's me who manages my schedule.
"
Two games away from the 2023 World Cup
And his agenda is quite extensive.
He has just founded a company (Symbioz) which offers an innovative way to exempt from taxation.
He also became president of the Toulouse Occitanie Business Club.
Not to mention his role as a consultant for BeIN Sports or its related activities (real estate, art).
The man is a jack-of-all-trades and his commitment to the Algerian federation follows the same logic.
“I am naturally curious and when Mourad Gherbi told me about the project to develop Algerian rugby, it immediately interested me.
"
The national team, recreated in 2017, is only two games away from qualifying for the 2023 World Cup. Whatever happens, Mermoz will be there.
"If it's not on the pitch, it will be outside," he says.
Initially, he will engage as a leader by being responsible for convincing the many Top 14 and Pro D2 players of Algerian origins to join the selection.
Some have already taken the plunge (Best, Hamadache, Hireche).
"I especially want to help Algerian rugby to develop," said Maxime Mermoz.
I will also participate in some training sessions, to better feel things, to share more with them.
"
Her attachment to Algeria goes back a long way: her mother Zoulika was born on the other side of the Mediterranean.
"She came to France young and met my father, a blond Savoyard with blue eyes," says the ex-international.
When I was little, we often went on vacation to Algeria, we took the car, we crossed Spain, then Morocco.
It was heaven.
"
"I don't want to waste my time anymore"
Maxime grew up in Epinal.
He joined Toulouse at the age of 15 to join the Stade Toulousain and the sport-studies of Jolimont.
At the same time that he moved away from Algeria because of a too long schedule, he made a surprising discovery in the South-West: racism.
“When I arrived in Toulouse, at Jolimont high school, I will not name names but they will recognize each other, it is the first time that I have been made to feel that I have Algerian origins.
I was sad for them, but it made me feel weird.
It was a bit heavy.
Until I was 15, in the Vosges, my origins had never been a problem or even a subject.
"
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Now, at 34, he left all of those memories behind.
"I no longer want to waste my time," he said, he who has always been a bit on the sidelines of the rugby world: "I never fit into any mold.
"