Revelation of the start of the season in L1, Farès Chaïbi returns this Friday evening a few steps from home (OL-TFC at 21). To Bron, who saw him grow up tells the story of a football fanatic who was never satisfied, making a name for himself next to Benzema’s. Reportage.
On 17 October Terraillon will be the center of the world. Karim Benzema, his most illustrious son, will in all likelihood raise football’s latest individual award, the Ballon d’Or. One more reason to make this neighborhood of Bron proud, where the exploits of the “Nueve” soften a reputation that is sometimes difficult.
But for a few months the neighbor from Lyon has had one more reason to rejoice. This motif is 19, and has just entered Ligue1 as an elephant in a porcelain corridor. With a crash, huge, unmistakable. This motif is called Farès Chaïbi.
The school of the golden target
In the neighborhood, only the deaf have never heard of the Chaïbis. Badreddine, his father, bequeathed his passion to each of his children after an honest career in Algeria. The eldest son, Badro, was according to many the crack of the family, but it was Ilyès who first received the honors of the professional world (passed through Ajaccio and Monaco in particular, today at the Servette de Genève ed) before Farès arrived and took his part. “My example is above all Ilyès, says TFC number 28. Seeing him progress, reach the highest level, I wanted to do like him. And for Farès as for every other Bron boy, the telltale of talent is the road.
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At the wheel of his Twingo, Kemajou navigates between the bars of buildings that can be counted like the fingers of a hand: UC1, UC2, UC3 … After greeting Karim Benzema’s sister who was passing on the sidewalk, the friend daughter of crack delle Viole stops the car and sets up his 90 meter at the edge of a synthetic field of five against five: “That’s the Golden Goal. In Bron is the mother house of football. It was there, on this green rectangle of which there there are thousands across France, that Farès Chaïbi began to make a name for himself in the city, especially during the derbies between “Bron T” and “Bron UC”. Kemajou rewinds. “We played all the time, from morning to night. at night and it was too dark, they were all for their apple: the one that holds the ball the longest. We never stopped. Quickly, in this neighborhood “where everyone played against everyone”, Farès, Kemajou, Amine and Ayman, inseparable, they became the team to beat. “We were the only little ones who could play and against the big ones. It might be hot. Imagine, you are 20 years old and you are knocked out by a 13 year old boy … “
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Not far from the Golden Goal, Farès Chaïbi switches from sneakers to crampons at the Sporting Club Bron-Terraillon, also Karim Benzema’s first club, with whom he reached the age of 5. Frédéric Rigolet, an educator at SCBT, remembers a “discreet boy, technically at ease, who was already training to juggle with his weak foot when others were still learning to turn the cones”. In the wake of the man who remains with two goals in two consecutive matches in Ligue 1, we find the words talent, but also work and above all passion. “All this does not come out of nowhere, poses Kemajou. Farès, I’ve seen him work, he’s aggressive. “Soon too old for the Bron-Terraillon Sporting Club, he crossed the city at the age of 8 to join the ASBron, more suited to the extent of his potential. It is under the yellow-blue shirt that he meets Kemajou, Amine and Ayman; and four we dream big. “In my head we would all be professionals” confesses Kemajou, who has just returned from a trial in Switzerland in recent days, while Ayman, who played in Italy, now plays in the National 3 at FC Vaulx-en-Velin. “We were employees, we just thought about it. It is also specific to Bron. For others it’s rap, boxing, but culture here is football. “
Farès Chaibi with the AS Bron shirt
At ASBron, those who accompanied the phenomenon are struck by the fire that animated him: “I have never known a boy so passionate”, admires Rochdi Athamnia, who coached Farès Chaïbi for six years at the ASB, where he has always been outclassed. “At 10 he knew players from foreign leagues, this surprised me. In fact, he spent his time watching football with his father. This passion also explains his success. He knew that if he deviated in behavior, he wouldn’t play and it wouldn’t work in football. In the end we never had any problems. ”
In Lyon, the click
A football fan, Farès Chaïbi knows that making his dreams come true requires another start. “Bron, those were my first years, perhaps the best. This is my city, my little cocoon. But it was once I left him that I realized that I would make football my job. At 15, he joined FC Lyon, the second-largest club in the region behind OL, who have never set their sights on Chaïbi. There he meets the coach who is always talked about when it comes to his rise to him, Jordan Gonzalez: “No coach has trusted me up to this point. He did not take me one step, but several. “
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The first trigger probably comes on this summer day, when Jordan Gonzalez’s U17 national team prepares to face Nîmes Olympique in a friendly match: “During the preparation, Farès arrived three times in the late morning. We hadn’t kept him in the group to send a message. At first, he may have tended to think that everything would be done by snapping his fingers. “
After this false start, the one nicknamed Juninho at ASBron, for his ability to clean the skylights on a free kick, understands that talent alone will not be enough. In a season “a mental plateau passes, then in the game, on the management of weak moments, and finally on the fact of being decisive”, underlines Jordan Gonzalez, who recalls a player “always in tactical reflection, exchange and understanding of what we ask “and regrets that” the boys are so passionate, today is a bit lost “. As for Farès Chaïbi, he says today of Jordan Gonzalez that “he allowed him to make the year that he unlocked everything. What allowed me to sign in Toulouse.”
“He played again against Messi”
Three years after joining the Violets training center, Farès Chaïbi is preparing to face the team he would see playing in the great Champions League evenings, against Manchester City or Barça. “We really loved Barcelona, we were fans of Messi,” says Kemajou. There, I don’t know if we realize it, but Farès played against him (against PSG on August 31, ed) had Sergio Ramos, who still has a World Cup, running after him! laughs the one who never loses a match of TFC. For brilliant educators, Farès Chaïbi’s success goes beyond pride: “We are in somewhat difficult neighborhoods, says Edem Hamenou, technical manager of ASBron. We have a social role, we can be a driver, we can buy food for the children, and if we don’t, we can lose them. So Farès’ success affects us, because his humility affects us. He goes to the club, says hello, talks to the young people. “
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At the gates of the Bron-Terraillon club, British journalists are waiting to enter. They come to shoot a report on Karim Benzema. “Karim, he’s 35, the little ones weren’t even born when he left. For them it is not palpable, Frédéric Rigolet slips. The rates are palpable. Last week it was raining cats and dogs, he was there, on the edge of the field. “
History does not say whether after the match Farès Chaïbi went to wear the soles at But en Or.
