Blaise Matuidi
JUL 25, 2011
Joins PSG after
four seasons at
Saint-Etienne,
signing on the same
day asJeremy
Menez and Milan
Bisevac.
MAY9,2012
NamedinFrance’s
Euro 2012 squad- his first major
tournament –
but doesn’t play
a single match
due to injury.
MAY 24, 2013
Namedinthe
Ligue1 Team of the
Year after missing
just one game and
winning his first
league title.NOV 19, 2013
Plays in France’s
3-0 win v Ukraine,
thus recovering
from a 2-0 first-
leg defeat and
qualifying for the
2014 World Cup.hifted to a
i aeageof15,
int the French
aire ntaine,
r 20to2003.
ei ery good
f his int-Etienne
ltie ldLe
bin2010.
t. rre’s a big
fil player
en bble to
e leer.””
ut hooled
bof
,li isthe
n. s parents,
dtherElise,
aar orn southern
ol nd anxious
re , took thesuccess which would come his way:
World Cup gold in 2018, a runners-up
medal from Euro 2016, four Ligue1
titles with PSG, three Serie A crowns at
Juventus and the French Player of the
Year award in 2015. For one thing, he
was a rather sickly child, beset by kidney
and urinary difficulties. As a toddler, he
also came within a whisker of a grim
end, climbing out of a window of his
family’s seventh-floor flat in Toulouse
and only saved in the nick of time by
a saving tackle from his uncle.
He caught the football bug from
his two elder brothers Emmanuel and
Junior. As soon as young Blaise could
walk, all he ever wanted to do was
emulate his ball-playing siblings and
it was only a matter of time before he
was allowed to join the kick-about fun
at the foot of the estate tower blocks
in Fontenay, normally up against much
older kids. The play area might have
been rough concrete but at least
it was painted green.
Three figures played a crucial part
in nurturing and shaping his nascent
talents: his first coaches with the US
Fontenay schoolboys,Juan Ruiz and
the lateJacques Zilberschlag, taught
him the fundamentals of the game,
and Laurent Piombo, a regional French
federation rep, who guided him at the
Vincennes and Creteil clubs. “He used
to cry when we lost,” recalls Ruiz. “He
was a shy kid but adorable. On the
field, though, he was a winner. Even
as a boy, he was dynamic. Physically
well-coordinated and good on the ball.”
Encouraged by Piombo, he took anddecision to emigrate to Europe in1983,
first settling in Belgium, then moving to
France, where Faria worked in clothes
manufacturing and in the airport
business.
There were few signs in Blaise’s early
life of the treasure trove of sportingMentor...Saint-
Etienne coach
Christophe GaltierTaking on...Matuidi joined Saint-Etienne in 2007Starting out...Matuidi at Troyes