France’s president Francois Hollande has ignited a huge row in France by insinuating that footballers in the country are stupid.
The 62-year-old suggested that young players are not prepared psychologically and need better education has been ridiculed by former France international Emmanuel Petit.
Hollande, a self-confessed football fan, used his new book ‘Un president ne devrait pas dire ca…’ [A President shouldn’t say that…’] to share his thoughts on the situation.
“They go from being badly brought up kids to rich stars without preparation. They’re not prepared psychologically to know what is right and wrong,” Hollande says in a published extract of his autobiography.
“The [French Football] Federation should not be organising training sessions, but classes. It’s gym classes for the brain.”
However, Petit, a winner of the World Cup and European Championship with France, has sniped back that the president is out of touch with the country’s citizens and has offered to give him lessons in honesty.
“It disappoints me, but doesn’t surprise me,” he said to RMC. “For too long now, we athletes, the footballers, have been looked down upon with a lot of condescension by our ‘dear’ politicians.
“I’d give them gym classes for the brain and even probity for the political classes. Notably in intellectual honesty, in honesty full stop.
“It would be good if those people stepped down off their pedestals and went out and met the French people. We footballers don’t have all the answers. But we create wealth, unlike politicians, who live off the people’s money.
“That’s one thing that differentiates us: we don’t steal money from people, we earn our money honestly.”