The top French scorer in a European championship, since January 2020, has lavished his talents on… Cherno More Varna, on the shores of the Black Sea.
At 32, Mathias Coureur, Martinique striker, panics statistics with 12 achievements after 11 days in a Bulgarian championship already attended from 2014 to 2016.
The child from Sucy-en-Brie (Val-de-Marne), trained in Le Havre, hardly left any traces in France.
After stints in Beauvais, Nantes or Gueugnon, he rode his bump in Spain, Georgia, Kazakhstan and even South Korea.
This citizen of the world, a fan of PSG, talks about his unique career and the experiences that made him grow.
Is it a pride to be currently the top French scorer in a European championship?
MATHIAS RUNNER.
Of course.
I would be lying by playing the false modest.
Especially at my age.
I am aware of having played more matches than other players, but I will not shy away from my pleasure.
I beat my best total (
Editor's note: 11 already in Varna in 2015-2016
) and I do not intend to stop there.
I reap the fruits of my labor while benefiting from an essential success factor in an attacker.
Serial scorer in Bulgaria and unknown player in your country: do you accept this paradox?
I would have preferred to meet this success in France.
I didn't have the career I wanted, but I have no regrets.
My ultimate dream was to play for PSG.
Long before it was the club it is today.
I was like everyone else, I wanted to start in Ligue 1 and then find something better, that is to say the Premier League or La Liga, then discover the Champions League.
In Nantes, I may not have been able to seize my chance, but the blame was shared.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
What happened ?
After my first training with the pros, the coach at the time, Michel Der Zakarian, said to me:
I wasn't the one who wanted you, it's the management!
At 18, 19, it's violent.
I'm not looking for excuses, but when you don't show me interest or affection, it's rude.
I was making a very good living.
I consoled myself with this easy money.
I went out a lot, I flamed, to forget my inner pain.
You could have found another club.
Why did France no longer want you at the end of the 2000s?
After Nantes, I had to travel and go on a conquest because no one wanted me in France anymore.
It must be said, I went two and a half years or almost without playing.
At that point, you doubt your worth.
The few clubs that speak to you have no shame in making you indecent salary proposals.
They know you're in deep trouble.
They tell you it's that or nothing.
You are not in a strong position.
When you like football, then you try to find a solution to be able to exercise your profession and that's what I did abroad.
Do you think you have the level to progress in L1 or L2?
I could pass for someone arrogant by answering you yes.
Today, I don't know, but a few years ago it was obvious.
I know it.
I might not have had the statistics of a Niang, Pauleta or Gignac, but I would have had my place.
What have all these experiences brought you in countries that are sometimes a little improbable?
In terms of my game, I haven't really improved.
But I opened up to the world.
I lived in many poor countries, I was able to soak up this misery on a daily basis.
I opened my eyes and realized how lucky I was.
It helped me become something other than a footballer.
I didn't speak the language, I had to fend for myself.
Now in my life, I am no longer afraid of anything.
Even alone in the middle of the desert, I would get by.
Mathias Coureur plays with Cherno More Varna in Bulgaria.
/ DR / Facebook
Does a professional footballer make a good living in Varna?
It is always difficult to give figures.
The question of salary is a bit taboo and not only in France.
I live very well.
I don't have the right to complain.
I'm not a yellow vest… After people ignore it, but at one point in my life, I played for 1,000 euros per month, instead of the gross 25,000 euros a year earlier.
A very strong bond seems to unite you with the supporters of the club ...
They gave me and still give me a lot of love.
The fans even once thanked my mother for bringing me into the world!
The only time I saw my father cry was in 2016, when he attended my last game here, before I came back in January 2020. The heartfelt tribute from the audience shocked him.
The Bulgarian federation was pinned down a year ago for racist chants in its stadiums.
Have you ever encountered it on or off the pitch?
I have sometimes been the target of insults.
I remember a match against Levski Sofia where I was the victim of monkey cries.
I was disgusted.
At the end of the match, a Sofiote fan comes to meet me.
I told him of my anger at such behavior.
He replied:
yes, but how else can we do it to distract you
.
Racism, I experienced it more in everyday life than in the stadiums.
Do you have specific examples?
In Spain, a few years ago, I was banned from entering a restaurant on the pretext that I needed a reservation.
And yet other people, who arrived at the same time as me, were exempt.
I can't prove it was because of my skin color, but I was the only one who couldn't access this property.
And in your other host countries, have you experienced prejudice or even discrimination?
In Kazakhstan, when I arrived, everyone wanted to take pictures with me!
In my head, I was proud, I told myself naively:
The leaders have announced a crazy player to them or what!
And it was actually just because of my skin color.
They had never seen a black man.
It was for fun and mockery.
They didn't even know who I was.
One day, a woman asked me for a photo to give it ... as a wedding present to her husband.
In the eyes of the Kazakhs, we are subhumans.
A black man, in their culture, is necessarily poor.
He swam across the sea to come and he lives in a hut ...
You didn't want to leave this country?
Things worked out over the weeks.
I was the best player in my Kaysar Kyzylorda team.
People would then come to the stadium for me.
And then I was living in a Muslim country.
As soon as they saw me at the mosque, the locals adopted me.
It changed their perception.
Do you still follow the path of PSG, the heart club of your childhood?
Whenever possible, I don't miss a Paris match.
I'm like a fan in front of my TV.
It even tires my wife.
This club made me suffer more than a woman.
I remember a match for the anecdote, Paris-Gueugnon in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue 2000. Paris loses (2-0) and I cried as if I had suffered defeat or lost a loved one.
How do you imagine the aftercare?
I started investing in real estate from right to left.
I also got married in September.
I now dream of building a family.
I would have loved so much to live my career having a child.
Let him see his footballer daddy.
That he can travel everywhere: in Bulgaria, in South Korea.
That he can speak Spanish fluently.
It could not be done.
This is how
