Gerard Depardieu: Football is like cinema
Baku, October 27 (AZERTAC). Gerard Depardieu, a giant of world cinema with over 100 films under his belt, including global box-office smashes such as Going Places, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Cyrano de Bergerac and Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar, is also a passionate football supporter.
The Chateauroux-born actor fulfilled the role of goalkeeper as a young boy, and has followed the ups and downs of Auxerre from the stands at Abbe-Deschamps Stadium with his friend and club chairman Gerard Bourgoin.
The living legend of French film, who is a keen observer of the world game and is fascinated by FIFA, paid a visit to the headquarters of football`s governing body on Friday 19 October, where he met and chatted with FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. While there, he kindly took time out to accord an exclusive interview.
Depardieu says: I`ve been passionate about the game for a very long time. It`s a great way to keep kids off the streets in deprived areas. It`s another form of intelligence - a new language, a separate culture. When you`re not that academically inclined, as was the case for me, sport can often be a way to gain respect. As far as I was concerned, when I was 12, I was unusually tall for my age. There were therefore two sports available to me: boxing and football. I used to be a goalkeeper. My technique was quite simple: I would shout so loudly that the little forwards advancing towards my goal didn`t even dare to shoot! I was brought up in Chateauroux, near an American army base. I first tried my hand at boxing; I was a sparring partner for some of the GIs there. I used to aim for the body, focusing on the stomach. However, I never could understand baseball or American football. And so for me, the obvious and easiest option was football. It`s a sport where you can be aggressive or even get angry, especially at refereeing mistakes, but you never act violently. I`ve got a lot of admiration for top centre-forwards. I was never able to perform well in that role, and you could say that they also have a different mentality. For example, I love Zlatan Ibrahimovic`s warrior-style approach, with his chest sticking out proudly, and Lionel Messi, well, the little guy is always capable of surprising you. Zinedine Zidane made everything look simple, when he was in fact a master of his trade, and Michel Platini - who, in my opinion, was a complete genius - was a very intelligent player, to be frank. There`s no doubt it was a different kind of football back then, with less money flying around. That French side of the early 80s, with Platini and Dominique Rocheteau, had me on the edge of my seat. Obviously, I wasn`t such a fan of Harald Schumacher`s style of play. That`s not one of my fondest memories.
Speaking about the social role of football and the similarity between football and cinema he states: One thing is certain: no other sport has as many member countries as FIFA does. Even the United Nations has fewer members. There`s no other activity that`s as universal. I suspect that one day China will emerge as a top football nation. The Chinese are very positive people. When you see their athletes burst into tears at the Olympic Games because they `only` obtained a silver medal and view that as a loss of honour, well, that`s incredible. Look at Korea DPR, a small, isolated country with a population of 25 million or so. They have one of the world`s best women`s teams - that`s remarkable. Even in the United States, where there are so many other sports and where football didn`t catch on so quickly, the women`s team has had some great results, winning gold at the Olympics several times. Football, like cinema, is a cultural phenomenon. Each country boasts its own style of film-making, just like each country has its own football style. But I`d say that football is even more important, from one particular aspect.
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