In Calais, football to forget hell / Reportage / SOFOOT.com
Forget the furious madness of the Parc des Princes, the cozy bars or the pizza-beer combo with friends. Tuesday evening, in the middle of the mud, tents, rounds of CRS and an area of activity, around fifty refugees gathered in Calais to watch this PSG-Real. We were there.
By Florent Caffery, in Calais
Amended
As Kylian Mbappé slaloms in the Madrid surface, a young Sudanese explodes with joy. “Here, it’s Paris!” » he says, wrapped up in an orange and blue down jacket, before celebrating in the manner of the French striker the only goal of this round of 16 first leg of the Champions League between PSG and Real (1-0) . “They exploded like crazylaughs Foued, one of the two thinking heads of the Mosaic association, which regularly offers cultural events to refugees from Calais. That’s also why we broadcast the game here. Everyone loved it. » Before the madness, it was above all a question of bringing back, by the foot, lightness. “It was important for them to live in the present moment without thinking about the truck they will get into after the match to reach England” , insists Foued. Rewind.
Generator-arbor-canvas package
9 p.m., Tuesday evening, in Calais. More than a thousand exiles continue to wander there every day. For table, the A16 motorway and the port bypass, where the latest victim, Abdallah, a 28-year-old Sudanese, lost his life falling from a truck at the end of January (the 347and victim on the Franco-British border since 1999, editor’s note), the Transmarck activity zone where transport companies abound and this wasteland where an arbor has been torn off. The tents in which the exiles sleep are sodden. You don’t take three steps without ending up in the mud. Two associations come to the news. “Park a little further, the cops often pass here, it’s better not to attract them, so we can watch the game in peace.” » “We landed with the generator and the arborgoes on Foued, a stone’s throw from an 8,250m warehouse2 that the giant Amazon is being built. No one was kept informed. We are not organizing the rally. The installation is done, the message gets through, it’s spontaneous, and the guys come. »
Under his hat and his three-day beard, the former resident of Saint-Germain-en-Laye comes out with the appropriate analysis: “Here, it’s a symbolic place with the Transmarck car parks. Usually, for refugees, the evening consists of driving back and forth to try their luck in a trailer. What we want is for them to be in the present moment and not in an eternal projection of England. In the days of the jungle (dismantled in October 2016, about 10,000 refugees lived there, Ed), there was a dedicated room, speakers, there was a way to meet. Since then, everything is scattered. There, the guys are watching football and a few hours later, they will be kicked out of their tent when they wake up. » An overhead projector, a canvas and a streaming link: the case is closed.
A game of FIFA in a Third World setting
Pieces of wood light two fires, a Bluetooth speaker spits out hip-hop, the mercury reads 8 degrees. He cracks, “but guys don’t think too much about the coldswears Maxime, volunteer of Utopia 56 who carries OM rather than PSG in the bottom of his heart. Most of them are football freaks, it’s a real social vector. When they are sometimes taken to the hospital in the evening, they are on their phone with the Champions League. » Not long ago, “Playstations were brought. It was hitting FIFAs in places where they have nothing. The gap between the reality of their situation and FIFA was abysmal. » Fields worthy of a potato field are also usually enough to start a match on the spur of the moment.
In the crowd, the rare accelerations of Karim Benzema raise cries. Here, a young Sudanese takes a large stone to raise himself up and see the screen better, while Ousman, also Sudanese, takes advantage of the generator to recharge his cell phone, like about twenty other friends, while all eyes are Riveted on the screen. “Frankly, I don’t care about PSG or Real, I’m more City, even if Paris really plans there. They are at home, they must impose themselves to be more serene on the return. »
“No matter where I went, we always found a moment to watch a match or a ball to play. » Ousman, 25, Sudanese
Maxime from Utopia 56 talks about a “50-50 in terms of the audience, Paris is a dream, but Real has a crazy coast internationally. It all depends on how you were raised in football, but here African players like Salah or Mané are adored. » For Ousman, between two rounds of cakes in the audience, “you can’t miss having the opportunity to watch a game like this. Ten minutes before kick-off, I was told it was broadcast, so I came live. » Ditto for Jazair, 26 freelancers including eight months of hardship in Calaisis and a reference in France: “Juninho with his crazy free kicks when I was young. I have always liked Lyon, Milan, Manchester, Real. Basically, it’s the festive side that attracts me. To watch PSG against Real is to take a break from these catastrophic living conditions. » In four months in Calais and after two years of struggle between Libya, the Mediterranean and Italy, Ousman, 25, still dreams of England, even if he will not make the crossing by boat. Too dangerous. On November 24, the 27th of theirs lost their lives in the waters of the English Channel. Ousman rather puts on the hideouts in the trucks and ensures: “During these two years, it was the foot that always made me feel good. No matter where I’ve been, we always find a moment to watch a game or a ball to play. When you’re solo, it has no interest, but there, several, you vibrate. »
“Guys who take each other by the shoulders and sing, you find it whether in Manchester, in fucking London or here in Calais. » Tom, British volunteer
We vibrate even when we have absolutely nothing to give a damn about the tactics, the missed penalty by Messi and the few damn cuts of the streaming during the meeting. “I don’t hate the foot, but damn I spent my life growing up in it laughs Tom, in his forties, a British accent made in Manchester and energy to spare to help exiles. The only times I kicked was when I had to. The guy I loved was the King, Cantona. He had class, style, he knew that two things would thrill Mancunians: football and music. The spirit of camaraderie, guys who take each other by the shoulders and sing, you find it whether in Manchester, in fucking London or here in Calais. It is a universal language and it is not exaggerated. Fires are lit, people are dancing, others are watching the match, do you see tensions there? Not at all. »In mid-January, it was the African Cup of Nations that plunged the Sudanese camp into a sweet euphoria, especially after the draw against Guinea-Bissau. “It was crazy, especially when our goalkeeper saved the penalty late in the game savor Ousman again. We almost had the feeling of being at home, when we had to leave our land. » Sudan is 17 years of civil war between 2003 and 2020 and still high tensions in the south of the country. Maxime had the impression “that the Sudanese had won the CAN at that time when they had an impossible group. It was the treat. »10:50 p.m., end of the broadcast: PSG wins, a few more dances and songs, and it will be a question of diving back into reality. In the distance, flashing lights split the darkness. “In two hours, some of them will try to get into a truckcompletes Clara, from the Mosaic association. At least there, they decompressed…”
By Florent Caffery, in Calais