He took a step to the side, raised his head and extended his right index finger towards the 4th floor of the building with the white facade. “The story started here,” laughs Amara Sy. It is in this apartment, made up of a single room “barely 20 m2”, located at 4 rue André-Antoine in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, that the former double French basketball champion with Asvel and 23 professional seasons on the clock spent the first years of his life. “Perhaps the most beautiful,” he assures. Nevertheless…
Born at Lariboisière hospital, in the 10th arrondissement, in August 1981, Sy lived there until he was 9 years old – and the family's permanent move to Cergy (Val-d'Oise) – in this lively and colorful neighborhood where tourists from all over the world, workers and residents of multiple social origins mingle in a joyous saraband.
“There were only white people on the street, except in my building”
At the beginning of April, a few days before a historic Eurocup final between his club and Bourg (first leg this Tuesday, April 9, at 8:30 p.m., at the Adidas Arena), the current sports director of Paris Basketball agreed to dive back into this past, to stroll on the cobblestones of his childhood and bring back memories. Between laughter and emotion. A district of Pigalle where, with his friends, he re-enacted a remake of “The 400 Blows” from the 1980s.
Amara Sy, Place des Abbesses, where he was the victim of a car accident while playing football. LP/Amélie Dibon
The “little” Amara playground is bordered by the Moulin Rouge and the Pigalle metro station to the south and the Sacré-Cœur to the north. Surprisingly, he never crossed the Boulevard de Clichy, located a few meters away, which represents a sort of natural border between the 18th and 9th centuries. Between two worlds.
“I haven’t been back for years, the street has changed a lot,” he whispers. At the time, the building was more of an African squat than anything else. There were only white people on the street, except here. Everyone came from Africa except Mimi, who we called
Mimi meow
because she had lots of cats. I don't know how this building never collapsed, probably thanks to the others on either side..."
“I was the neighborhood mascot”
In the apartment, tiny and “crazy unsanitary”, the family lives up to seven: the parents, Tabara and Boubacar, and their five children. Amara is the eldest. Showers and toilets are on the landing. “We slept in the same bunk beds, with each other’s feet in each other’s faces,” he says. There were no lights in the corridors. » One day, one of his younger brothers, who was leaning out of the window, fell and spent three weeks in a coma. The worst is avoided.
If the rats "the size of dogs" number in the dozens, what the kid fears most are the drug addicts, who block access to the corridors and staircases. “I was afraid of coming home and meeting them… so I came home even later, around 9 or 10 p.m. in the summer, when I must have been 6 or 8 years old. »
In the 1980s, Paris had not yet begun its gentrification. The street is dotted with numerous “champagne bars”. The neighborhood comes alive at night with numerous sex shops. He also remembers witnessing two shootings: “My mother told us it was for a film. » “It was the ghetto,” Amara continues, going up rue André-Antoine towards rue d’Orsel, where his nursery school was… where he was kicked out. There were people who injected themselves, prostitutes, transvestites. I knew everyone and everyone knew me, I was the neighborhood mascot. »
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Sy's parents work a lot. Amara takes advantage of this, dragging and wearing out her pair of sneakers on the sidewalks. He inherits the nickname “Little thug”. “I couldn't sit still, I got into a lot of trouble, I could get into fights over nothing but everyone liked me. I was the youngest of the group. I was going to buy cigarettes, alcohol, food or condoms. I was an Uber,” he laughs. Even the neighborhood cops take a liking to him.
Amara Sy in rue André Antoine Paris (18th century), where he grew up. LP/Amélie Dibon
Father Sy, whom everyone calls “Mitterrand” – “because he always wore a suit” – works at Comatec, mother works multiple jobs. She cleans in a pharmacy on the other side of Boulevard de Clichy and for the owner of the pharmacy, who is the father of the actor Max Boublil. “As a kid, I wore Lacoste clothes, but they were his, his father gave them to my mother for us, I found out much later,” he confides in front of the Atelier theater, where he had fun climbing the exterior ladders.
Pascale, the “big sister”
Rue Houdon, the giant (2.02 m) becomes a kid again, stops at number 15, in front of the primary school. There where he met Pascale, his first grade teacher. An important woman in his life, with whom he remained in contact. “She lived on rue Lepic, she invited us to her house on Wednesdays so that we wouldn't hang around too much. She was the one who taught me verlan. She has always taken care of the young people in the neighborhood, she has this fiber. »
At the Abbesses metro station, where the famous carousel and the red brick church stand, the smell of waffles tickles the nostrils. “We had football tournaments on sand,” recalls the former Malian international, who only discovered basketball in Cergy. One day, I wanted to be like in the cartoon Olive and Tom. With a friend, we had to pass under a bus but the ball got stuck underneath and I followed it, a ball was a treasure for us. I wasn't paying attention and I didn't see a car coming, it hit me..."
More fear than harm. “I was lucky, it was just a little accident. Anyway, my body and face are full of scars from that time. Once, we climbed a wall to follow two guys who were robbing an apartment, we didn't realize anything. »
A memory resurfaces. “One day, we ended up at the police station, which was next to the Place des Abbesses, with my brothers because we had stolen a little motorbike for a laugh. Fortunately we went to Cergy afterwards and the adults stopped me from doing stupid things, breathes the father of three children, aged 9 to 7 years old. I don't know what I would have become if I had stayed. There is a good God…” Many friends from that childhood went through prison.
When Amara was 7 years old, the Sy family was expelled and found themselves in a “3-star hotel” on rue Lepic, a few meters from the Moulin Rouge. The establishment has since changed a lot. In front of the renovated facade, the man who was nicknamed the Admiral on the basketball courts takes his phone to show the transformation of this hotel, which has become 5 stars, “very classy”, to his family. “We stayed for two years, as we didn’t have a TV, I was always outside,” he explains. We didn't have a kitchen, my mother cooked food with the iron, but for the first time we had two bedrooms. »
“We lived in a slum, but we lived next to an extraordinary place”
Suddenly his eyes light up. A smile crosses his face. The famous little white train which transports tourists to the Sacré-Cœur parks on the other side of the boulevard. Amara has taken it hundreds of times, but for the first time it will pay for the trip to the Paris summit. Usually with his friends, they “carrot” and jumped in when the driver was looking the other way.
With his friends, young Amara Sy often cheated to board the little Montmartre train and reach the top of the hill in the company of tourists. LP/Amélie Dibon
“We went there often, we always felt like we were on vacation, we squeezed through the tourists to climb to the top of the Basilica. The view of Paris is magnificent. I love this place, with the tourists, the painters, the musicians... We spoke to the girls in English, we brought blackberries and made compotes with them. People come from all over the world to see this and it was my home. We lived in a slum but we lived next to an extraordinary place. »
Coming down the steps of Montmartre, the man who is also president of the Cergy basketball club stops in front of the immense dry fountain. “We were going to look for the coins that the tourists threw in,” laughs Sy. I like this place, its diversity. I had poor friends and rich ones who lived in houses with gardens. There was a lot of kindness. It's a big village where everyone rubs shoulders, knows each other and helps each other. We had fun though. I only stayed ten years but I feel like I lived here twenty years. » A life worthy of a novel that built it, forged it.
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“We lived in extreme poverty, but I am happy with those years, there was carelessness, we only thought about playing without realizing reality,” continues the person concerned. We had nothing, but we had a lot of love around us. When we went to the Restos du Cœur, for me they were real restaurants, I understood later that they were reserved for the poor. There is a lot of emotion coming back here. »
Having left Pigalle at the age of 9, Amara has never forgotten her roots. “I often say that I am a Frenchman of Malian origin and a Cergypontain of Parisian origin,” underlines the man who came full circle in a rich playing career by signing, in 2019, for three seasons, for Paris Basketball (then in Pro B). The interior with 586 matches in the French Championship returned to support the development of this young club.
Amara Sy is a happy sports director with her Paris Basketball team, which is preparing to compete in the Eurocup final. Icon Sport/Romain Biard
At the time, the Parisians played at the Halle Carpentier. “An important place” for Sy, who played tournaments there during the summer when he was launching his career. Since 2022, this has taken a new turn. He put aside his player's jersey to put on that of a manager.
A few weeks ago, the 18th century once again invited itself into the life of Amara Sy. The Adidas Arena, now the home of Paris Basketball matches, was inaugurated at Porte de la Chapelle, barely 3 km from rue André-Antoine. A nice wink.