What is the moment in your career that you are most proud of?
When I put on the OM jersey for the first time with the pros. There were twenty internationals in training. It’s a great memory. At 18, when you have the chance to play with Förster, Le Roux, Genghini, Giresse, Papin or Cantona, it’s a great chance to start a career and learn.
Which player would you have dreamed of playing with?
Paolo Maldini. A perfect career that should have allowed him to have the golden ball. A caring, generous player who has stayed with the same club throughout.
The player you hated playing against?
My former brother-in-law, Pascal Camadini. He was trying little bridges so I told my sister-in-law that I was going to bring both of his legs back to him. When he played in Lorient and Strasbourg and we met, it was pretty funny. And when we played together in Bastia, he was shouting when he came out of training because I put boxes on him (laughs).
It is in what can happen to you that serious that you learn a lot.
How would you like to play in the present day?
Yeah, for the speed, the tactics, and how lucky they are today to be able to work on video, to work the mind and lots of things that we couldn’t do back then.
Your best memory of victory?
That of the last weekend. I switch so quickly when I win… I have no more memories of defeats or catastrophes. It is in what can happen to you that serious that you learn a lot.
Your biggest failure, exactly?
It is not a football match, it is the catastrophe of Furiani (collapse of a platform in 1992 during the semi-final of the Coupe de France Bastia – Marseille). I was at the stadium. It’s still a scar. I find it hard to talk about it. Every time I trained there, that I made kids evolve there, I reminded them that we were not allowed to die in a stadium.
The hottest stadium you’ve played in?
Furiani. Saint-Etienne is hot, Lens too. Bastia is explosive, fantastic. I always enjoyed it, even when I was in the opposing team. It takes madness. I loved the smell, the scent. In the old stadium, I remember a match against Nîmes in front of 8,000 spectators. It looked like there were 35,000 or 40,000. It was huge. The screams, the passion of the people. I played in stadiums where the guys arrived with knives. With us, it was not that. I have always preferred to play there, at the Vélodrome or Bollaert, than in Monaco. I needed to get into it, to be criticized, booed sometimes. It was a source of motivation. When you enter the Vélodrome and there are 50 or 60,000 people, sometimes it is some OM players who are afraid of missing their first pass. This is where you see the men.
The coach who marked you the most?
Frédéric Antonetti. He trusted me when I was seriously injured for 18 months. He can be very tough, but on a human level he is a fantastic person. He sensed things and drew magnificence from his group as he still does. He was capable of hot shots, too, sometimes it was even a skit. But in the work, the tactics, he was impressive. I loved it.
The day you decided to end your career?
It was in 2002. I was playing in Scotland (FC Livingston). I should have gone there or to England earlier because it’s football that I liked. It was engaged but no one was crying. Ten years before, I was given lost for football. I had knee surgery six times. At 35, the pain was there. The day I told myself that I didn’t want to hurt myself again, to go back to the hospital, I decided to stop. I ended up winning over Glasgow Rangers with an assist. We were European. And then I said: “It’s okay, I can go home”.
The jersey you picked up and will never give away?
Karl-Heinz Förster’s. It was he who taught me, gave me the desire. He was smart, vicious but never took a red card. A very tall man.
I see too many parents today who want their children to earn money. Too many players miss a career because their family is killing them.
The loved one who has mattered the most in your career?
My father. He never asked me if I wanted to be a pro. He came to get me, took me to football. He was always kind, never pressured me. On the other hand, he always told me “respect for refereeing, respect for coaches”. I see too many parents today who want their children to earn money. Too many players miss a career because their family is killing them.
A moment or a career choice that you would change?
Join Toulouse, in 1997. Not for the coach, Alain Giresse, not for the city or for the people I met there but for the president at the time, André Labatut and his sports director. If I had known them straight away, I would never have been there. Bastia had suggested that I extend… I had built a house there, I was on the beach, I had family and one morning, however, I realized that I no longer wanted to go to training. I regret having signed in Toulouse but not having left. I should have gone to England.
If you hadn’t been a footballer?
Skier or tennis player. I was classified 15 to 14 years old.
Your superstition before a match?
Enter the last on the lawn. And yet I am not a believer. I needed to see everyone go by, not to forget someone. And today it is still the case. I would have to do a little psychoanalysis (laughs).
The city or the country which marked you the most by its atmosphere?
Corsica. I arrived there in 89, I was loaned by OM. The smell, the airport, the mountains opposite. It is magic. But beware, I have traveled a lot and I have discovered fantastic countries: the Faroe Islands, China, Scotland… And Brittany which is extraordinary. I did not know and it is really beautiful.
Landmarks
September 7, 1968: birth in Marseille
1989: loaned by Marseille, he landed in Bastia
2002: end of professional career
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