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Lilian Thuram: "It's not just the football world that has a problem with racism"

2021-12-22T09:01:27.441Z


Present at the 20th edition of the Étoiles du Sport, the 98 world champion gave his point of view on the violence and the evils that plague football. In his style always very committed.


At the Sports Stars in Tignes

Lilian, over the years, you have become a regular at this Sports Stars event…


Lilia Thuram:

Yes, and I am delighted.

I'm happy to be here, especially since this is the 20th edition.

It is fabulous that such an event could have lasted over time.

It was really a really great idea originally.

Personally, I strongly believe in the fact that a champion does not make himself alone.

We live in a society where we want us to believe that we are first building ourselves.

The Sports Stars, for their part, put forward the notion of sharing, donating their own experiences to help the youngest to grow up.

It's important to learn from your experiences, but also from those of others, whether positive or negative.

As such, I find the Sports Stars to be an exceptional gift for an athlete.

Has this notion guided your career?


I believe that human beings are made to live in community. We are not made to live alone. It is the exchange that allows you to grow. And then, you know, when you're athletic, you can go through certain situations and not have the same answers. Being able to discuss also means having more answers available when there are difficulties. How to manage before or after competition for example? Each athlete has his own way of seeing things. And the fact of being able to discuss the subject makes it possible to enrich oneself. There was a time when the more fortunate had tutors in many fields to gain further knowledge. Today, the Sports Stars have somewhat democratized this concept by making it accessible to many young athletes of all disciplines.

Lilian Thuram during the Étoiles du Sport Julien CROSNIER / KMSP / EDS

Do you consider yourself to have had a lucky star during your career?


Yes, but it depends on what criterion we base ourselves on.

Is it sporting success, or the fact of having fallen into a good family?

Or to have received enough love?

I think I was lucky to have fallen into a family that gave me what I consider to be the most important thing in an individual: love.

From the moment we are loved, very often, it means that we have confidence in life.

And if you have confidence in life, it's easier to move forward.

Would you have liked to be a footballer today, at the risk of receiving a bottle on your head or being heavily insulted on social networks?


(Smile) Honestly, I don't ask myself those questions. I was lucky to have been a soccer player, and today I simply am no longer. Each generation must adapt to its time and the important thing is to be yourself. Indeed, I think that we should not give too much importance to social networks because, as a rule, you quickly come to think that everyone thinks the same way when it is only about a few comments generally all in the same direction, often negative. Now I'm telling you this but I'm lucky to be older and to have perspective. For a 20 year old, it might not be that easy.

Knowing that the difficulty, too, lies in the fact that these networks are vectors of potentially very important income…


Yes, but it is not the same thing.

When I talk about taking some distance from social networks, I am talking about the torrent of insults circulating there.

You must not believe that because 40 or 50 hateful people insult you, it is all of France or the whole world that is insulting you.

And frankly, you shouldn't let some people, who are often frustrated, get to you.

The frustration of some does not have to determine how you are going to be or how you are going to spend the day.

I think that the role of parents is all the same to accompany their children and to protect them too.

Lilian thuram

Can your sons Marcus and Képhren keep their distance?


I don't know, you would have to ask them directly.

But in any case, we discuss these subjects.

I try to explain things to them from my point of view, like any father would.

Then they have their own point of view.

But I hope I managed to make them understand that social media was not the real world.

Sometimes I have the impression that some people believe that it is the other way around, that the real world is in the networks.

Are you protective of them?


I think that the role of parents is all the same to accompany their children and to protect them too.

With my sons, I discuss everything and nothing.

I am their father, I cannot tell you more.

Képhren confided that you forced him to buy a car at a reasonable price…


Yes, it's true, and it's still normal.

I want him to know where his priorities are, and to be careful not to get lost.

If we come back to the violence seen recently in football, in particular this bottle which reached Dimitri Payet.

Do you think the League is taking the right sanctions?


I have played football for a very long time and I am always very surprised that some people want to analyze it, without analyzing society. I think that the violence that has in the world of football is quite simply the one that has in society. When you talk about social media it is violence and we ended up normalizing it. This is the reality. I find that many political speeches today are violent. Just as when you read the comments on the Internet for an article, you will also find a lot of violence there. So once we have normalized violence in the public debate, it is obvious that then people give way more easily to their own violence. And the biggest problem is that we don't condemn this violence,but that we try to explain it or defend it. It is very ambiguous. I also think that today we are in a society which defends individualism, which is a form of violence. When you hear people on TV saying that solidarity is not something positive, it is terrible. It is social violence. We trivialized the idea of ​​being against each other by explaining to you that it is normal.We trivialized the idea of ​​being against each other by explaining to you that it is normal.We trivialized the idea of ​​being against each other by explaining to you that it is normal.

You cannot hope to solve the problem of racism in football without realizing that it is first and foremost a social problem.

Lilian thuram

You are also very committed against racism in football ...


Yes, and it's the same problem. If you analyze racism in football, then you have to analyze racism in society. Today, racist speech is trivialized in the public space. And how can you think that if such a speech is trivialized in the public space, it will not end up in football. Same thing with sexism or homophobia. When we talk about categories, we have to question them, know where they come from, why do they exist, who win, who are discriminated against… Sexism, racism or homophobia are above all political constructions. You have to try to understand them in order to get out of these thought patterns. Again, these are habits linked to the past.You cannot hope to solve the problem of racism in football without realizing that it is first and foremost a social problem. It's not just the football world that has a problem with racism. If you say that racism is normal or something that cannot be done anything against, then it is not possible to move forward. I am not sure that many people in politics, and in society in general, understand that racism is violence. When we talk about sexism, we are talking about abused women. Equality will not fall from the sky, it is built and therefore depends on wills. Living together comes from a political will. Ditto for fraternity, freedom ...just isn't the football world that has a problem with racism. If you say that racism is normal or something that cannot be done anything against, then it is not possible to move forward. I am not sure that many people in politics, and in society in general, understand that racism is violence. When we talk about sexism, we are talking about abused women. Equality will not fall from the sky, it is built and therefore depends on wills. Living together comes from a political will. Ditto for fraternity, freedom ...just isn't the football world that has a problem with racism. If you say that racism is normal or something that cannot be done anything against, then it is not possible to move forward. I am not sure that many people in politics, and in society in general, understand that racism is violence. When we talk about sexism, we are talking about abused women. Equality will not fall from the sky, it is built and therefore depends on wills. Living together comes from a political will. Ditto for fraternity, freedom ...and society in general, understand that racism is violence. When we talk about sexism, we are talking about abused women. Equality will not fall from the sky, it is built and therefore depends on wills. Living together comes from a political will. Ditto for fraternity, freedom ...and society in general, understand that racism is violence. When we talk about sexism, we are talking about abused women. Equality will not fall from the sky, it is built and therefore depends on wills. Living together comes from a political will. Ditto for fraternity, freedom ...

When you see the emergence of certain candidates in the presidential campaign, are you worried?


The question is not whether this worries me.

Rather, it would be to know why that does not worry some people.

You see what I mean ?

That this worries me is obvious.

But why do some find it normal that we can hold certain hate speech in public space?

Source: lefigaro

All sports articles on 2021-12-22

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