It is an evil that is nowhere and everywhere, invisible and omnipresent. "When you're 19, you don't talk about it", establishes Ouissem Belgacem on the set of the Quotidien show. Boy from Aix-en-Provence, Ouissem Belgacem, like many young boys, pursued his dream of a professional footballer. He joined the Toulouse training center, played alongside Aurélien Capoue or Moussa Sissoko, future finalist of Euro 2016 with the Blues. Ouissem, he stayed very far behind. "To succeed in becoming a professional in a sport, beyond the athletic qualities and techniques that one must have - and in a training center there are a lot of them -, it is above all a mental feat that must be achieved" , says the former Tunisian international. This mental strength, he did not find it.His homosexuality did not help, especially in such an environment.
"We cannot change our sexual orientation: it's an unhappy life that awaits us as long as we do not accept ourselves"
Homosexuality in football: the testimony of former footballer Ouissem Belgacem in #Quotidien ⬇️ pic .twitter.com / bDca8HeOQT
- Daily (@Qofficiel) May 4, 2021
"I had this project to change my sexuality, to heterosexualize myself," says Ouissem Belgacem on the set of
TMC
. I felt so bad in my sneakers ... "The former Toulouse, still a teenager, felt" rejected in all his circles, whether in sport, my religious community or my city. " “It all brought me back to the fact that it's wrong to be the way I am,” he adds. We are in the negation of you, in the strongest discomfort. " Obvious problem: "It is not possible to change your sexual orientation, as you cannot change the color of your skin." This feeling of exclusion made him "obsessed with changing, because I knew that (homosexuality) was not going to be compatible with my passion." A discomfort that "consumed him from the inside". Sadly common in high performance sport, even more so in football. But where thestory of Ouissem Belgacem is different, it is when the former player decides to tell it in a book.
"When I hear the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) prioritize discrimination ..."
Ouissem Belgacem
Co-written with Éléonore Gurrey, the work “Adieu ma shaonte”, published this Wednesday May 5 by Fayard editions, is intended to be “a story as intimate as it is powerful”.
"I do not blame anyone personally, because for me, homophobia, it is systemic, specifies Ouissem Belgacem for Quotidien.
But when I hear the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) prioritize discrimination, namely that if there are racist chants we stop the matches but homophobic chants, there we can continue, it does not return a good image."
"I find that we stop too many matches, had deplored Noël Le Graët, president of the FFF, in June 2019 in the columns of
Ouest-France
.
This pleases some ministers, but it bothers me.
Football cannot be held hostage for vulgar words.
It is not football, but society in general that must think about it, at school or in companies, everywhere. "
On
France-Info
, Le Graët estimated that racism and homophobia, "it is not the same thing".
"Me, you see me, I suffered from both", concludes Ouissem Belgacem who invites "to fight against all forms of discrimination".
"But we don't choose the one that suits us if we want a more egalitarian society."
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