“No dream should end at the bottom of the Mediterranean”

Tribune. We share a passion for football. Both bathed in the sun, our cities have water as their horizon. The Atlantic for Dakar, the Mediterranean for Marseille. And it was in the waters of the Mediterranean that a 14-year-old Senegalese boy, Doudou Faye, died last week.

Fourteen is not an age to die on a boat in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers. Doudou joined Italy because he had been promised that his talent as a young footballer would open doors for him. But now, he will not have had the opportunity to demonstrate it. And if he had been able to reach the Italian coast, the promises would certainly have given way to a more brutal reality.

An investigation is underway and we will not focus here on those responsible for this tragedy and the fact that a father could one day put his child alone in a boat for Spain and then Italy. But because we are fundamentally educators collapsed by this tragedy, today we think of Doudou’s friends and of all the children, from the suburbs of Dakar to the cities of Marseille, whom football fascinates. And to all those who are driven by poverty to follow in Sadio Mané or Boubacar Kamara’s footsteps, our responsibility is to tell them this:

1) Don’t listen to dishonest and self-serving voices telling you how outrageous your talent is. At 14, you still have everything to prove and nothing is written at that age in football. Look at the players who win the under-17s-only competitions and analyze which of them are still playing the leading roles on a soccer field five years later. You will see that they are few.

Keeping pace with the field and the school

2) The Europe of football and its dreams, the image of the millionaire footballer who travels in a private plane and drives in a racing car, masks a reality that is much more down to earth. No matter what latitude your dreams take you, becoming a professional soccer player will be about 1% of you. And even. Nothing will be easy. There is no sector, no clear path, no universal recipe.

3) When you are 14, it is therefore better to concentrate on an essential step without which nothing is possible. Understand that football is first and foremost a school of life. Draw on the values ​​of the game, the gift of oneself, team spirit, discipline and rigor, to build yourself as a young man or young woman. Accept defeat, be humble in victory, listen to others without whom nothing is possible, on a field as in life.

4) Finally, never forget that alongside football, school is an essential base that allows you to acquire knowledge and skills allowing you to one day become a free spirit. Keeping pace with the pitch and at school for as long as possible should be a major goal when you’re 14 and playing football.

We love to dream. We have been fortunate enough to accomplish many of our dreams. But we made these dreams come true because we trusted a man, a woman, often a selfless mentor, educator or teacher who wanted nothing but our fulfillment. We must be dreaming at 14 years old! But at this age, no dream, whatever it is, should end at the bottom of the Mediterranean.