PATRICE EVRA
“I saw Suarez in Selfridges and my brother wanted us to have it out. I don’t know if he’s a racist – but what he said to me that day was”
Patrice Evra is buzzing. He’s back in Manchester and has just finished a signing session for his book, where far more people turned up than he expected. “I feel Mancunian,” he grins as he meets FourFourTwo. “No, really.”
The former Monaco, Man United and Juventus full-back played 81 times for France and hung up his boots in 2018, yet his profile is arguably higher than ever. His sunny demeanour – dancing, singing, chicken-licking and all – mean 8.7m follow him on Instagram, which he didn’t even join until 2016.
Evra spent his childhood in the same gritty Parisian banlieue that also reared Thierry Henry and Anthony Martial, but his upbringing was full of both joy and sadness. One of 24 siblings, he was a thief and, briefly, a drug dealer. Evra was also sexually abused by a former teacher when he was a teenager and has broken down in recent interviews – yet he insists he told his story to help others, not elicit sympathy.
Football was his escape, and Evra eventually rose to become the captain of both United and France as one of the world’s greatest full-backs.
Now, he’s ready to get stuck into FFT readers’ questions all about it. “OK, let’s get into these, I’m ready for them,” he smiles. Well, if you say so…
What was your childhood like, being one of so many kids?
Toni Davidson, Sale
Busy! But with a lot of love and a lot of laughs. We shared everything, but you had to be alert at food time. When my mum said food was ready, you didn’t have time to wash your hands because the bowl would be empty by the time you did. That was my brothers for you. We slept three to a single mattress and that was just normal to me – we didn’t complain. It was a loud and usually happy house, even when my brothers were being punished by my dad…
You had a random spell in Italy at the start of your career which wasn’t too successful. What happened?
Scott Saunders, Wakefield
It wasn’t random – I was proud to become a pro in Italy and played for two clubs there… as a forward. The first was Marsala, a small third division club in Sicily.
