From the north to the south of Marseille, we find everywhere these sections of stadiums, nestled between cities, along the motorways, where a handful of teenagers and children sweat with their faces concentrated. What could be more normal in a city where football replaces religion? If we look closely, we quickly understand that these children do not have fun after school or spend their school holidays. With Olympique de Marseille (OM), Manchester City or Bayern Munich tunics on their shoulders, these little figures, some of whom are barely five years old, train with the rigor of professionals, under the watchful eye of their parents sitting a few steps away. steps away. .
Often, there is no ball in the field they are inspecting. Instead, multicolored cones, rings placed on the ground, plastic fences that trace the route of technical exercises called “specific”, aimed at developing their explosiveness (ability to initiate, in a short time, a strong muscle contraction) or their mobility. . Welcome to the world of “laboratories”, these often informal training camps, run by trainers who call themselves “coaches” and which, for several seasons, have been spread throughout the city.
How many laboratories does Marseille have? In the Provence district, where there are 50,000 licensees, more than half of them between 6 and 13 years old, departmental technical advisor Raouf Ben Belgacem has no means of identifying them. “But, as in Ile-de-France or around Lyon, it is far from being an epiphenomenon. Because many parents think that in training, doing a lot means doing quality.”points out.
“Parents have gone crazy”
Ahmed, a father who follows his two children’s sessions and wishes to remain anonymous, explains this rise of “specific coaching” in a single sentence: “It’s the “Mbappé project” that is to blame. » At the edge of the stadium of the city of Riaux, in l’Estaque (16my district), as throughout the French territory, this code name is on everyone’s lips. It describes the intention of parents willing to do anything so that their son follows the same extraordinary path as the Real Madrid star. The lightning emergence of Kylian Mbappé, trained for a long time by his father and whose affairs are managed by his mother, left its mark.
A family business that makes many parents fantasize and pushes them to believe that their son’s talent, subjected to Stakhanovite work, will lead to a contract worth several million euros. A hope so brutal that it now periodically feeds the news chronicle around amateur clubs. In October, in Colomiers (Haute-Garonne), the cars of two educators from an under-11 team were set on fire, following their decision not to select a child for a match.
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