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| Edgar Bean in Carcassonne, his hometown |
Edgar Bean. Football Player. France.
I'm Edgar Bean from Carcassonne, Occitan, in the south of France. I'm a professional football player who adores Pelé. I have played in some professional teams but no one of them has offered the most important thing that I was searching: happiness and time to improve. I'm travelling around the world with my family, The Beans, and i must admit that staying with them is much more excited that a World Championship Finale. It's not important for me to achieve the Ballon d'Or because I have something more important than this, a better treasure: my family.
-Good morning, Edgar Bean, and thanks to attend us.
-Good morning. It's a pleasure.
-Well, to start this interview I would like to know how you define yourself.
-I'm a football player, and then I'm a sportsman, an athlete, someone who must take care of his body because it's my work tool. I'm very competitive and I like fair play. I don't understand violence in football or in sport in general. Violence is the failure of dialogue and respect.
-How do you feel being a member of The Beans.
-It's a great and big family. We're always together and we try to help each other because we believe in common work.
-How is a normal day with The Beans?
-There isn't a normal day. Every day is an opportunity to do something different and exciting but basically, we are learning English and this is the centre of all.
-How long have you been studying English?
-Since Primary School but when you don't live in an English-spoken environment is very difficult to remember and practise all things that you've learnt. France is a country with great language diversity but governments along the history haven't appreciated this and they have created linguistic policies in a favour of French and against the rest of the European languages: Breton, Alsatian, Basque, Occitan, Catalan, Romanesque, Corsican... The most part of French people are bilingual but the knowledge of English is very low. Curiously, the second most spoken language in France is Arabian, of course as a result of colonisations and immigrations. France must change its mentality if the country wants to be competitive from the point of view of languages.
-What part of France are you come from?
-From Carcassonne in the south east. My hometown was one of the most important cities and cultural centres during the Middle Age. It was the centre of Catharism, the movement that explains and gives sense to the most important events during that time. Carcassonne is recognized as a Human Heritage by the UNESCO and it's also the place where was filmed Robin Hood, The Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner, Mary-Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Rickman, Morgan Freeman and Sean Connery.
-How can a French footballer arrive to success?
-Working hard and believing in you. Being constant and accepting good advice and refusing bad ones.
-What can you explain about your life with The Beans?
-Well, we're sailing in the same boat and we have the same objective. We're working very hard to reach it.
-And after?
-Life continues. Every Bean will take his/her path and this family will have been a good experience, something to remember with a big laugh.
-Which is your best memory with the family?
-It's not possible to choose only one but, perhaps, I would choose our visit to Rio de Jaineiro because I had the chance to stay in Maracana. The dream comes true. I'm a great fan of Pelé, for me, one of the best football players of the history, if not the best. Visiting this stadium was a mystic experience that I will never forget.
-You have said, you like reading and watching cinema. Could you talk about the last book that you have read?
-I've read an interesting book about Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentinian football player who could arrive to be the best but chose the worst paths and finished fighting against lots of personal problems.
-And your favourite film?
-I like lots of films but one of my preferred is Balto, a film about a Siberian husky and sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease. It's a wonderful film about how animals help us to survive in extreme situations.
-What would you say to children who want to be a professional footballer?
-Football is a sport and every sport needs discipline, effort and follow the trainer instructions. You don't play alone. You belong to a team and you must work for it because you must work together. If the team wins, all people win and if the team loses, all people lose. Partnership, confidence, honesty and trust are very important to arrive to be not only a good football player but a good person. Sport must create good people because you can arrive to be a mirror for thousands, millions of other children and you must offer strong values.
-What do you like to improve in football?
-For one hand, I think new technology must applicate in professional leagues because, it's a pity, but in these levels, football is a big business and you can lose a lot of money only because of a wrong decision of the referee. Technology could be the solution like in the American Football League. For other hand, I think we must work very hard to impulse female football. In general, female presence in sport is underestimated and it's a terrible mistake. We must change it.
-Thank you very much, Edgar Bean.
-You're welcome.
It's like everything in football, and life. You need to look,
you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space,
you need to help others. It's very simple in the end.
Johan Cruyff
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