What a shock!
I was 18, and
saw Sir Alex
Ferguson
coming to my
house. I couldn’t
speak English
so Mum
translated
England you can have a normal life.’
But it’s not true!”
He does get approached a lot in
Manchester but people are respectful.
“I like the city and I like the mentality
of the people here. It’s humble,
respectful and I meet a lot of good
people. Everyone’s friendly. I feel very
good. It’s similar to the north of
France, so I feel comfortable.”
What do fans talk to him about?
“Especially the weather! It’s not too
bad. I expect something worse!” He’s
settled quickly, as are his wife
Camille, son Ruben and daughter
Anaïs. “School, house, most important
things. My son starts to speak English.
He’s four, so it’s a good experience.”
But why leave Madrid? “I have a lot
of very good memories in Madrid. I
felt I had won everything there and it
was time to try another experience, to
fight for another challenge. That’s
why I chose to come here.
“I expected to find a family here.
From the outside you can see how the
club respect legends, respect the
history. Now I can feel it. I feel the
warmth. Everyone respects everyone.
I feel like everyone here is equal.
“I won everything so maybe I was
looking for a different feeling. You
have to fight for something bigger
than you. You have to fight for the
club and the fans. I feel very proud
putting on the shirt. I feel honour.
“It’s important for this club to be atsay sometimes you have to enjoy
what you have. That’s why Madrid are
special. It’s because of this mentality.”
He smiles at the mention of the
English tradition of players having a
party together after a trophy.
“Together? Some trophies yes but not
always because after, for example, the
last Champions League [title] we had
the World Cup so we just come back
to Madrid, party with fans and go for
national teams. Sometimes I wanted
to push the pause button — time to
celebrate!”
Expectation levels at the Bernabeu
are intense, fans crowding the team
bus on arrival, demanding victory. It
cannot be easy staying calm with all
the adrenalin around him. “Inside I’m
not calm!” Varane says. “But it’s my
personality. I feel the pressure like
every player but I try to turn the
pressure into motivation. I’m very
competitive. Focus, focus. All my
feelings, I try to control them.”
It was not always the easiest being a
Real Madrid footballer and wanting
to walk about or eat out. “You can,
but I learnt to choose where and
when,” he says. “I remember once, I
crossed [by] a school when they were
going [out]! That’s a little experience
to show you can’t do everything like
everyone. It’s a special life.
“Before coming here, a lot of
players in the [French] national team
told me, ‘Yeah, no problem, inEnglish and I understand a little bit of
Portuguese and Italian.
“When I arrived in Spain it was not
easy because I’m very shy and to
speak with my team-mates was
difficult at the beginning. When I
decided to come here, I decided to
change and to go forwards, don’t be
quiet.”
Shy? It’s a word that surprised.
Such were Varane’s leadership
qualities that he was made captain of
Lens at 18 and led France at 21. “In
my opinion, there are different
leaderships,” Varane says. “For
example, I spoke a lot with Paul
[Pogba]. With Paul, it [leadership] is
more energetic, more expressive. I’m
more calm, speaking tactically, but I
always feel since I was young to take
care about the team, not just myself.
So if I have to say something, it’s
because I feel the team needs to hear
it. In general, I don’t shout, only if it’s
necessary and I feel it in the
moment.”
Varane led by example, by his
excellence as a defender, and by his
hunger, winning the Champions
League in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Madrid fans expected the trophy. “I
was in shock. After winning the
Champions League, the fans don’t
congratulate. Four Champions
Leagues!” He adds, laughing: “And
they tell me, ‘Congratulations, OK,
now on to the next one.’ I just want toHENRY WINTER
THE BIG INTERVIEW
Raphaël Varane on rejecting United
as a teenager, winning World Cup and
the day he told Zinedine Zidane to call
him back because he was too busy
A
ged 18, Raphaël Varane
politely asked Zinedine
Zidane to phone back
partly because he was
revising for an important
exam. From tests on and off the field,
Varane’s life is about commitment to
the task in hand.
There are so many examples of the
dedication of this remarkable
defender, one of the greats of the
modern era, a world champion with
France, four-times Champions-
League winner with Real Madrid and
now working hard with his team-
mates to revive Manchester United.
On landing in Manchester in
August, Varane spent his self-isolation
learning English with an online tutor
so he would be fluent when arriving
at Carrington. On watching games on
television, Varane always analyses the
centre backs to see if he can learn
anything.
Learning has always mattered to
Varane, as intelligent a figure off the
field as he is on it. Sitting at
Carrington, Varane relates the Zidane
story with a mix of wry amusement
and deep respect for the legendary
“Zizou”.
It was in 2011, and Varane was
being chased by United and Madrid
after a series of calm, commanding
displays for Lens, his home-town club.
Zidane, then working as an
ambassador for Madrid, phoned him
as Varane was upstairs at home,
studying for his baccalauréat. “I will
give you the details!” Varane laughs.
“It was a crazy moment of my life!
“I was playing with the first team
and the club knew I had to be sold. So
when Zizou called me, I was really
busy and I didn’t know it was him at
the beginning. When I recognised
him, I was shocked. ‘Oh wow!’ It was
crazy, so I asked him to call me back
another day because I was busy and
in shock.
“He was fine. Zizou is
very humble and a very
normal person so he
understood
completely. Ten
seconds after, I
called my brother
and told him, ‘You
don’t know what I
just did!’ It was
crazy, crazy! For
my generation, if
you ask, ‘Tell me
about one football
player’, it’s Zizou. He’s
the most famous and most
respected player.”
Two of the defenders of Zidane’s
World Cup group from 1998 also
inspired Varane. “[Lilian] Thuram,
Laurent Blanc,” he says. “When I
watch a game, I’m always looking at
the defender, analysing, how he
makes his decision, why he is in this
position, why he moves like that. I
always try to improve. There is only
one team I watch just like a fan and
that’s Lens because it’s my first club
and I grew up there. But if I watch a
game, it’s analysis, analysis.”
Such was Varane’s reputation that
Sir Alex Ferguson visited his house in
2011, wanting to sign him for United.
“Yes, yes! Another shock! I was
looking out of the window to see if he
is really coming in my house,” he says.
“When he came, I didn’t speak
English, my mum speaks perfect
English so she spoke more with him.
It was a discussion for an hour about
how he can help me to grow as a
person and player. It was a big
experience.
“For me, Manchester United always
was a big, big club with a big history. I
remember when [Rio] Ferdinand and
[Nemanja] Vidic were playing
together. I always respected this club
and the history. [David] Beckham, a
lot of players with a big legacy, so, yes,
I always respected English football
and especially United.
“The first idea was to come to
United. Because of circumstances,
Zizou called me and the transfer
accelerated very quickly and I went to
Madrid. I spoke with [José] Mourinho,
went back to France and took the
baccalauréat the day after I saw
Mourinho.” He passed. “Yes! It was an
absolutely crazy month!”
Completing his education was
important. “I could not stop just one
or two months before passing the
exam, so I had to finish it. And, when
you’re a young player, you never
know. Only 18 years old, everything is
possible and bad things are possible
too so you need some security.” If
Varane hadn’t made it as a
professional, he would have trained as
“a fitness coach or a physio”.
When Ferguson called, Varane
didn’t have his picture taken with
him. “I was too shy to ask.” Now 28,
he admits it does feel like destiny that
he ended up at Old Trafford. “Yes! I
want to meet him [Ferguson] to speak
about the old times.”
His decade at Real proved epic,
although it was initially a culture
shock moving from blue-collar Lens
to the glittering Spanish capital. “Yes,
it’s a big change,” Varane agrees.
“Madrid is a big club and it’s another
country, another mentality
with one of the best
players in the world in
this team, [Cristiano
Ronaldo]. It was
difficult in the
beginning to
adapt. But in my
mind it was very
clear, ‘I come
here and I do my
best, I work very
hard and we will
see what I can do.’
“Karim Benzema
taught me to feel
comfortable, to know how
to react in different situations,
to know the rules on the top level,
some mistakes to not do. And he
opened up to me. Sometimes you feel
a lot of pressure, things are not going
like you want and sometimes you
need to speak with someone who
understands you, to feel better. We
helped each other.”
His early travails in Spanish were
one reason Varane was so determined
to pick up English. “It’s important for
me, I want to be comfortable with my
team-mates, for my life in England,
for the club. I speak Spanish, French,country, anot
with one o
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Manchester: wife Camille, son
Ruben, and his daughter Anaïs8 1GS Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
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