As somebody born in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil, why do you think that Paris and its surrounding regions have produced so many high-quality footballers?
It’s crazy how many of us come from there, but you have to remember that, for many of us, we only had football. I just wanted to be a footballer. Actually, I was good at tennis as well, but I only wanted to play football.
When you started out at Strasbourg, the club had very good players such as Franck Sauzée, Frank Leboeuf and Aleksandr Mostovoi, and beat Liverpool and Rangers in the UEFA Cup before running Ronaldo’s Inter close. What made that team special?
I was lucky enough to learn my trade with so many good team-mates who
