Florian Thauvin, a Frenchman in the madness of Mexican football

CANAL+ – SATURDAY 9 AM TO 2:30 PM – DOCUMENTARY

Documentaries devoted to French footballers, which are multiplying in particular on platforms such as Netflix or Prime Video, are generally disappointing. The entourage of the player being often co-producer of the show, there is no question of damaging the image of the idol or of asking questions that are a little disturbing.

In a world of high-level football where money is king, the schedule tight and access to players impossible (without the agreement of their sponsors and agents), the director must submit to certain rules. And consider yourself lucky to have, for the duration of a shoot, access to a millionaire demi-god inaccessible to ordinary mortals.

Very formatted, with repetitions of agreed images (the most beautiful goals of the person concerned from all angles) and an “emotion” sequence without surprise (childhood memories), these documentaries generally give birth to portraits without flavor, contenting themselves with boasting the merits of the person concerned such as those devoted to Nicolas Anelka (Netflix), Karim Benzema (Canal +), Raphaël Varane (Prime Video) or Antoine Griezmann (Netflix).

Complex personality

All the more reason to recommend taking a look at the one signed Antoine Le Roy, devoted to the first months of international and world champion Florian Thauvin (29) in the yellow and blue jersey of the Tigres de Monterrey, a famous Mexican club that he joined in 2021 after his contract with Olympique de Marseille ended.

Is it thanks to the bewildering and very telegenic fervor that surrounds football in Mexico that this documentary is successful? Without a doubt. But the complex personality of the former OM and Newcastle player also has something to do with it when he talks about, facing the camera, his repeated injuries, his mood swings, his flaws.

If this dive into the madness of Mexican football is interesting, it is also because the local context is well dissected by another famous French player, present on the spot. Having become an idol in Monterrey – where he has been wearing the Tigres jersey for almost seven years – André-Pierre Gignac, former scorer for Lorient, Toulouse and especially OM between 2010 and 2015, tells how he managed to convince Thauvin , whom he had known since their Marseille years, to prefer the Mexican adventure rather than a more classic choice at AC Milan or Naples, two clubs interested in his talent.

Landed in Monterrey without his wife and son who will join him a few weeks later, Thauvin, who expresses himself very well in Spanish, lets the camera follow him everywhere: hotels, locker rooms, buses, training grounds, stadiums, medical offices. … All the daily life of a professional footballer, both routine and sometimes surprising, comes to light.

Happy like Thauvin in Mexico? “I feel like I’ve found my balance. In France, I was always restrained. We don’t judge here, we adopt you! »