FORMER REBEL EVRA NOW FRANCE’S WISE OLD MAN
IT HAS been a tortuous journey for France’s Patrice Evra, once blamed for playing a dark role in the worst scandal in the history of the team but now in the limelight as the wise old man of a team with high hopes.
Leading by example and always careful to send out a positive message, Evra, the oldest player in the squad at 35, offers protection to the youngsters and his experience to all.
“He is very important to us because he’s been through many things, has won big titles and played for big clubs”, said midfielder Moussa Sissoko. “When he talks, you listen.” Playing in his fifth major tournament, Evra has an impressive resumé, featuring five Premier League titles and a Champions League win with Manchester United as well as two Serie A titles with Juventus, his current club.
So vital is Evra to France that there was no debate on whether he should remain in the starting line-up despite giving away a penalty in a dismal performance in Les Bleus’ opening 2-1 win over Romania at Euro 2016 on June 10.
“I had the feeling there were 12 Romanians out there,” he said afterwards, not sounding a bit worried about his future. “It was tough because we were under a great deal of pressure but this will allow us to play more freely now.”
France coach Didier Deschamps, who had Evra in his team when he coached AS Monaco in the 2004 Champions League final, has the inexperienced Lucas Digne as his only other option at left back.
It was a very different story six years ago at the World Cup in South Africa, when Evra was captain of the team who went to their bus, pulled the curtains shut and refused to train at their base which had the misnomer of the “Field of Dreams”.
The unprecedented strike was aimed at protesting against a decision by the French Football Federation (FFF) to kick striker Nicolas Anelka out of the squad after he insulted then coach Raymond Domenech at half-time of a game against Mexico.
Evra’s first comments after that were to blame the “traitor” inside the squad who had leaked Anelka’s crude words to the press. His behaviour during that fiasco resulted in a five-match ban handed down by the disciplinary committee of the FFF.
The traumatic events that unfolded on the shores of the Knysna lagoon prompted a nationwide debate about what it meant to wear the France colours.
It took years for the wounds to heal and for the France team to redeem themselves, but now the fans are back behind Les Bleus and Evra can be seen chatting with them and cheerfully signing autographs.
Once reluctant to talk to the media, he shows up at news conferences in a relaxed mood and, after the game against Romania, he was one of few France players to make a lengthy stop in the mixed zone where journalists meet players.
“I always said I was ready to take blows if it could protect the other players,” said Evra, who had used a similar formula to explain his attitude during the Knysna scandal. “When I feel that one of the players is not feeling well, it hurts me.”
Evra said his approach to life had changed at the World Cup in Brazil two years ago after he read a book about the power of mindfulness by NBA coach Phil Jackson.
“It helped me a lot,” he told Le Parisien newspaper. “I see things differently, I see people differently. You may laugh but I also see trees differently. I can feel they’re alive.”
Meanwhile, Deschamps put it best, reflecting on how Dimitri Payet’s brilliant last-minute winner had bailed out a nervous French opening performance. “Football is easy when you can bang it into the top corner,” he said. “It solves a lot of problems.”
That is precisely what Payet did for Deschamps and France, putting them on top of Group A. But Deschamps must know that a 23m winning goal is not something that he can count on for the rest of the tournament.
Their third opponents Switzerland will be their main rivals for first place. What they need then is a more permanent solution to their problems, a way to make sure that they find more fluency and spark as the tournament progresses.
Of course, it might be that their opening day misfiring was simply nerves. They followed that up with an equally nervous 90 minutes against Albania on Wednesday before Griezmann and Payet came to the rescue.
“We were too timid, but we did what we had to do,” said Deschamps.
What Deschamps does have to ask himself is whether Payet is his player on best form – he surely is – and what this means for the formation next time. It felt remarkable, in the immediate aftermath of Payet’s goals, to remember that he had been the last name on the team sheet for the opening match, winning a selection battle with Anthony Martial, an exceptional talent but not the same type of player.
The reaction of the French press was to point to Payet’s elevated role in the side, and to wonder what that means for the rest of the team. “Payet is no longer there to win his place but to make the team win. He no longer plays for himself but for them,” wrote Regis Testelin in Saturday’s L’Equipe. “He is the leader of play of the French team and it is not a risk if he stays on the pitch while Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba leave it. That was the logic of his match, but also of theirs.”
Those who know Payet have always said that he needs to feel loved to produce his best football.
Evra said after the game that he had a responsibility to make Payet believe in himself, to grow into his role as the lead player for a team which is itself trying to make itself believe.
“We all know that Payet has quality,” Evra said. “Now he has gone to the next level with his personality and his character. To have the personality to be strong and take responsibility, you have to do things like that.
“I have told him, if you want me to, I will say every day ‘you are the best player, you are everything’. But if he does that every time I will go in his room every morning and tell him he’s the best player.” For now few would disagree with him. – The Independent