Fragments of FranceIn Montfermeil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, sports equipment, with its football, tennis, horse-riding and climbing clubs, has become in a few years the lung of the district, which seeks to break with the image of ghetto with which it has long been decked out.
Wednesday September 8 is a day of celebration in Montfermeil: Mounir, soon to be 5 years old, asked his mother to be able to put on his best swimsuit. Flocked with a number 10, with the name of the most famous Sequano-Dionysian of the moment, Mbappé. It is 2 pm; the boy, with an immense smile, enters for the first time on the central lawn of the Henri-Vidal stadium, planted in the middle of the city of Bosquets. From the top of his 100 cm, ball on his feet, the future center-forward spins on the field, gets lost, joins a group of youngsters (giants of 12 and 13 years old), makes a hook towards that of the women before capturing the voice of his sports educator who leads him to the dozen kids in his group, born in 2016. He has been dreaming of being admitted to the field his brothers and sisters have traveled for months, but also, before them, his father, his uncles… Football, here, is a heritage.
The club has a thousand members for a city of 25,000 inhabitants. Football is the most important sports section in Montfermeil, but not the only one. A shining tennis club adjoins the footers’ stand; it has 625 licensees. The outdoor clay courts have a false air of Roland Garros, and the indoor courts guarantee the club’s activity regardless of the vagaries of the weather.
Not far from there, in the shade of a wood, the equestrian center (500 license holders), where a group of young girls try their hand at trotting. There is also a dojo, a climbing wall, a handball club… Surrounded by the bars of buildings and towers built in the 1960s, the stadium has become the lung of a city that has changed.
At the beginning of September, they are several hundred, boys and girls, parents and grandparents, to have crossed the districts of the city to come to train. In the stand, Audrey Metha helps Oscar, 7, and Gary, 5, put on their crampons. The family does not live in the city, but a little further, in Franceville, a residential district of Montfermeil. The mother appreciates the friendly and family character of the city club. “Dads come to see their children play, they meet, discuss. All are football fans, it is the link that creates a social and ethnic mix ”, observes the young woman.
The good reputation of the Henri-Vidal stadium goes beyond the limits of the municipality. Sekou Sako traveled from Vaujours, 6 kilometers away, for his 8-year-old son Idriss to follow the trainings of the Montfermeillois club, “Whose level is high”, he said. Objective: that Idriss wins, one day, the World Cup, with France or Mali. Gwenaël Jourson, who lives in the neighboring town of Gagny, father of four children, appreciates him, “The good atmosphere”, “Invested educators”, “The pleasure of seeing the little ones evolve”.
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