the times | Monday February 21 2022 1GG 13thegame
playmakers in France. Montpellier’s
captain has been on breathtaking
form this season, so much so that
there are calls for him be capped by
the national side. “Téji is brilliant,
one of the very best,” Mavididi says.
“He represented France’s Olympic
team and there’s stiff competition
for his position in the French team,
but he’s definitely rubbing shoulders
with them.”
Savanier was born in Montpellier,
whose football team have a solitary
Ligue 1 title to their name, bagged in
2011-2012. Laurent Blanc, one of
French football’s icons, made 243
appearances for the club, while Eric
Cantona netted ten times in 33 games
while on loan in the 1989-90 season.
Mavididi himself has encountered
first hand one of modern football’s
greats: Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he
met during his spell at Juventus.
“I’d had some loan spells at
Charlton and Preston while I was at
Arsenal, and loved my time there, but
when Juventus came calling I couldn’t
say no,” Mavididi says. “Juve is a huge
club. They’d decided to enter a
reserve team in Serie C, and aim for
Serie B. I decided to give it my all, to
play for the B team and try and break
through [into] the first team.”
Mavididi became close to Ronaldo,
marvelling at, and learning from, his
commitment to staying in shape as
much as his ability. “What he does off
the field keeps him on it,” he says. He
went on to play in 32 games for Juve’s
Serie C team, training regularly with
the first team. He made his debut
in Serie A in April 2019 when he
came on as a substitute in a defeat by
SPAL, becoming the first Englishman
to play for the Old Lady since David
Platt, in 1992. In the next game,
Juventus wrapped up the title.
The celebrations were accompanied
by sadness. Mavididi’s father died at
about the same time, and Mavididi
spent six weeks away from the club.
On his return, it was clear he would
not be in the reckoning for the first
team. Enter, again, Henry, with the
recommendation that he sign on loan
for Dijon. Mavididi scored five times
in the league for the club before
Covid curtailed the season.
In June 2020 Mavididi signed
for Montpellier in a ¤6.3 million
(£5.2 million) deal. The fans have
taken to him, he has learnt to speak
French to a good level and life in
the south of France is good. “The
beaches, the sunshine, the weather —
there’s a great vibe here,” as he puts it.
But Mavididi’s sights are set on a
return to England: “It’s no secret that
I want to play in the Premier League.
It’s the best league in the world.” And,
of course, he would like to add to his
many England age-group
appearances with a full cap.
Will we see a transfer someday
soon to Newcastle, where his brother
is learning his trade? Or maybe, if
they are promoted to the Premier
League, to Queens Park Rangers,
whose in-form forward Chris Willock
is Mavididi’s best friend? Mavididi
laughs. “We’ll see,” he says. And then
he is off, to train and train again.6 Alex Wade’s A Season on the Med:
Riviera Football in Italy and France
(With a Trip to Athens for Stan) will
be published by Pitch in December.
He also co-hosts the podcast
FootyontheMed.comStephy Mavididi is having a good
season. With eight goals to his name,
the 23-year-old striker, born in Derby
and brought up in east London, is
thriving at Montpellier, helping the
Ligue 1 side to make a serious push for
European competition next season.
“We don’t talk about Europe, and we
haven’t set it as a target,” Montpellier’s
No 10 says. “But we know there’s talk
among the fans, and it’s great that the
club is in contention.”
Montpellier’s strong first half of the
season foundered a little in January,
as they suffered two league defeats
and exited the Coupe de France on
penalties against their Mediterranean
rivals Marseilles. But the previous
weekend Mavididi had been at his
best, scoring twice as Montpellier beat
Monaco 3-2 to move into sixth place
in the league (they have since fallen to
ninth, but at full-time of their 1-0 win
over Lorient yesterday they were only
a point from the European spots).
Both goals in the Monaco victory
were textbook finishes that would
have delighted Mavididi’s mentor, one
Thierry Henry. “Henry was a huge
influence on me,” says Mavididi,
whose 16-year-old brother, Shaun, is
on Newcastle United’s books. “He
helped me massively when I was at
Arsenal, and then later, when I was
looking to move from Juventus.”
Mavididi joined Arsenal when he
was 12, after a period with Southend
United and the east London
grassroots club Rippleway. Football
was in his blood from day one. “I just
loved it, loved the feeling of kicking a
ball as soon as I could walk,” he says.
“I started training when I was three or
four.” Dedicated even before he had
reached double figures, Mavididi
would train, stay behind to watch
training sessions and games involving
older players, then train again.
He took the same level of
commitment to Arsenal. “Arsène
Wenger was in charge, and Steve
Bould was his assistant. There was a
great atmosphere there. Everyone
had the same vision. Everyone
wanted to play football.”
Chief among them, of course,
was Henry. The France international
would have been proud of the way
Mavididi held the line before slipping
into space to turn and take a pass on
his right foot. Bang, and the ball was
in the top right corner: 3-2 to
Montpellier, and delirium among
the majority of the fans in the
32,900-seater Stade de la Mosson.
Ligue 1 suits Mavididi’s game: 6ft
tall, lean and fast, he is blessed with
exceptional control. “It’s a very
technical league,” he says. “All the
players are happy with the ball at
their feet. Even in the lower leagues
in Italy and France, you won’t see a
defender smash the ball away. They
look to play their way out of trouble.
It’s not as fast as the Premier League
but it’s a great league to play in.”
And, in Téji Savanier, Mavididi is
fortunate to work with one of the bestStriker counts Thierry
Henry as a mentor and
was first Englishman to
play for Juventus in 27
years, writes Alex Wade
Mavididi relishing key
role for Montpellier as
club push for Europe
Seven times during the past half-
hour Richards has used that word
to describe his life. This has been a
whirlwind rise but Richards is realistic
about his expectations, settled in
Säbener Strasse and satisfied with
the demands ahead.
“When you get here you just feel
the ambition. You know that this is a
place where you just need to win. I
don’t think you could miss it. It’s in
the air,” he says. “I’m in a team with
superstars and some of the best
players, and I’m still new to it. But,
the thing is, I’m in the right place and
I’m only getting better each day, so
you never know what can happen.”elite from him and, as a new person
coming in, I’ll remember it for the
rest of my life, so when I’m more
experienced and there’s a new person
coming in I know how they would
want to feel and want to be treated.”
The mood in Munich is set by the
34-year-old Nagelsmann. Richards
got to know his manager well in the
first few weeks when most of the
squad were still on international duty.
“He comes into training sometimes
on his motorbike, I think it’s a Harley-
Davidson. He’s always proper cool,
always happy and approachable.”
Training was a shock, though.
Nagelsmann’s instructions wententirely against what Richards had
learnt growing up. “After a while I
realised everything he was making
me do had a reason behind it. There’s
new ideas all the time, everything is
fresh and the training leads the way
we play in games.”
Fortunately for Richards, come
match day the Fifa world player of
the year, Lewandowski, is on his
team. “You can’t switch off at any
moment when you’re around him.
He’s very clinical, he’s good at
everything, really. I would play
Fifa with Lewandowski and now
I’m playing alongside him. It’s
really crazy.”Stephy Mavididi
MontpellierITALY 7NETHERLANDS 4GERMANY 5DENMARK 2
FINLAND 3CYPRUS 5BULGARIA 2GREECE 2SWITZERLAND 2KOSOVO 2SWEDEN 6COUNTRIES WITH 1 ENGLISH PLAYER
Spain, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland,
Russia, Turkey, Russia, Serbia, Israel,
Slovakia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Albania, Malta, Montenegro*Figures cover most recent season6D 324Y 5D 22Y 725A 2the times | Monday February 21 2022 13