Gervais Martel: “Marking the occasion for children and allowing people to find players who made them dream, on June 4 in Calais”
On June 4, at 4 p.m., a team of legends from RC Lens will face the Variétés Club de France on the lawn of the Stade de l’Epopée in Calais (online ticketing available via the helloasso platform by clicking here). A gala match organized for the benefit of the La Chance aux Enfants association, co-chaired by Gervais Martel. Regularly, this association takes underprivileged children from Hauts-de-France to sporting events, with the objective, initially, of taking 10,000 to the Paris Olympics in 2024. A goal that has even gained in ambition over time. The former president of RC Lens takes stock with us and tells us about the great event to come near Calais.
Lensois.com: Gervais Martel, we left you before the health crisis on this objective of taking 10,000 children from Hauts-de-France to the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 with your association La Chance aux enfants. Has the project been able to progress since then?
It is progressing very strongly since it is no longer 10,000 but 15,000 children that we are going to take! 10,000 at the Olympic Games and 5,000 at the Paralympic Games. We have created an extremely important steering committee with great people on it like the Decathlon Foundation, Toyota, EDF… many Olympic Games partners have joined us. The University of Artois also helps us considerably by having a few students available to work on the project. We are now at the Arena in Liévin, we are also helped a lot by Jean-Marie Petitpre (general manager of the Arena). This steering committee is made up of about twenty people who share out all the important tasks. It’s a big organization because there are 15,000 children plus accompanying persons to be expected, knowing that one accompanying person is needed for 7 to 8 children. This represents a total of 18,000 people to take to the Olympic Games and more than approximately 380 buses. All the children are in a vulnerable situation, located in Hauts-de-France, and there is a whole organization to respond to their requests. There is a lot of work.
How was this gala match on June 4 in Calais organized between the Legends of RC Lens and the Variétés Club de France?
This is part of the actions that we will produce until 2024. We were contacted by the Variétés Club de France to find out if it was possible to play a match with the former RC Lens under the aegis of La Chance aux Enfants . There was a tremendous mobilization on the part of the players. There will be Laurent Blanc, Christian Karembeu, Alain Giresse, Sonny Anderson and many others with the Variétés Club de France, under the responsibility of Jacques Vendroux. For Lens, there are the usual veterans who are local, but I also asked players who were part of my teams to join them. There will be Moreira, Queudrue, Sikora, Warmuz (find his interview here), Wallemme, Fred Déhu, Diouf, Dindane, Vairelles, Smicer, Hilton and many others… It’s going to be really nice and the profits will go to the association, so we are expecting a lot of people in Calais on June 4th. A few hundred children will also be invited.
Why is the match being played in Calais rather than Bollaert?
Bollaert is still a big skill and the initiative came from Calais where Jacques Vendroux is from. This also helps the Calais club which has ambitions for the next 10 years. It was logical to do it there, with also Natacha Bouchart (mayor of Calais) who wet jersey in the operation. It’s also good to decentralize from time to time.
” It will also be an opportunity to have a thought for Daniel Leclercq and Papa Bouba Diop. »
What are you expecting from this day?
What I expect is that people come to find people who made them dream at some point in their lives. This is an opportunity to mark the occasion for the children and to be able to prepare well for this objective of 2024. It will be a moment of celebration, a moment of availability with the public. I hope we will have a good time of pleasure, with the joy of meeting again. It will also be an opportunity to have a thought for Daniel Leclercq and Papa Bouba Diop who have left us.
Your elders, in what form do you expect them?
Above all, I’m waiting for them in good mental shape, being happy to be together, to talk about certain times, the good times that have passed… For the past few days, I’ve been talking a lot with Vladimir Smicer, whose birthday it was on Tuesday and who is very happy to see his friends again. Obviously, we are not going to put notes like you do in the press at the end of the match. It’s mostly about finding yourself. Francis Gillot will be the team coach, assisted by François Brisson.
We will see several generations of RC Lens players mix on the pitch. Are they all equally dear to you even if they have not all had the same success?
Of course, I never made any distinction with my players. We had a few cases that we couldn’t catch up with but it was very rare! For the rest, I keep a good memory each time. I never felt my players want to lose. There were generations more buoyant than others but I don’t make any distinctions!
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