Luke Belecco

Eric Cantona 🗣 Football gives meaning to your life. I really believe this. But your life, your history, your essence, also gives meaning to your football. I am going to talk about some things that I almost never discuss. I need to tell you a story that shaped everything that I am. It happened before I was even born.We have to go back to 1939, during the Spanish Civil War. My maternal grandfather was from Barcelona, and he fought against the dictator Franco until the bitter end. At the very end of the war, he was a wanted man, and he only had a few minutes to make an escape before the Nationalist soldiers captured the city. He had to cross the Pyrenees mountains on foot to get to France, and he did not have time to say proper goodbyes. This was the end. Life or death. So before he left, he went to find his girlfriend, and he asked her, “Are you ready to follow me?” He was 28 years old. She was 18. She had to leave behind her family, friends, everything. But she said, “Yes, of course.” This was my grandmother. They fled to the refugee camps in Argelès-sur-Mer, on the coast of France. There were more than 100,000 Spanish refugees accepted there. Can you imagine if the French had turned them all away? But no, they showed compassion, as humanity must always show compassion to those who suffer. My grandparents had arrived with nothing. They had to start their lives over. But after some time the refugees were given an opportunity to go to work building a dam in Saint-Étienne Cantalès. This is the life of immigrants. You go where you must. You do what you must. So they went. They made a life for themselves. My mother was born there a few years later, and then the family eventually moved to Marseille. This story is in my blood. It shaped me as a human being.