not the players football they are not millionaires disconnected from the universe around them. Christophe Galtier He wanted to remove this label from the shirt of his protégés this Thursday in Paris, during an intervention at the “Demain le sport” festival. “Don’t think that the players are off the ground and in a bubble,” the coach replied. from psg to a question about the place he gave to general culture and good civility in the way he manages his footballers.
“They are informed, they are aware of what is happening in the world,” insisted the coach, two weeks after the controversy surrounding the team’s air travel. PSG, Galtier and Kylian Mbappé found themselves under fire from critics after the carefree reactions of the coach and his player, at a press conference, to a question about the transfer of the club by plane to Nantesa short destination for which there are less polluting alternatives, such as the train.
“That’s not the picture at all [parfois véhiculée], what you don’t know is that they are very generous, they defend noble causes”, assured Galtier. “They are very cultured, especially because in the locker room they meet different nationalities, they are interested in what happens in Spain, South America, Africa, the Maghreb, in the Eastern countries… he continued.
“Much more mature than other young people”
For former coach of Nice and LilleThe footballers “are much more mature than other youngsters, they face reality, and that of the competition”. “PSG players have to beat three teams every week, and to be better than their teammates, they’ve faced the competition since they were 13, 14 years old,” he insisted. “We have the image of the irresponsible footballer, it is false. Very young, many times they are already married, they are already parents, they have family responsibilities, also siblings or little children, and enormous pressure on a day-to-day basis. »
At the beginning of his speech in studio 104 of the Maison de la Radio, Galtier was briefly interrupted by two activists in the fight against global warming, shouting: “The climate is in danger, Galtier is an accomplice”. This was an allusion to his phrase about the “sailing tanks” and the controversy it generated. The technician then blamed him, saying that he regretted “a joke that is in bad taste.”
“Don’t confuse perhaps off-kilter humor with respect for the planet,” Galtier replied again. “I am very careful, I just made a round trip by train to see my son who was undergoing surgery. »