After a howler against West Ham last week Fabien Barthez might rue his switch
David Barnes
No one quite remembers when Fabien Barthez broke with family tradition in his home village of La Roque d’Olmes at the foot of the Pyrenees and started playing with a round ball.
But what they do know is that Barthez, at eight, was a registered rugby player on May 4 1979, the date of his first licence. And that, in the months ahead, he had to go a few miles up the road to nearby Lavelanet to find a football club. There simply wasn’t one where he lived.
For the roots of Barthez are set deep in the French heartland of rugby where granddad Vincent was a well-known flyhalf and father Alain a top-class fullback who played for his country.
The No 16 jersey Barthez wore to win the World Cup for France now lies in the coffin of the rugby- playing grandfather he adored. It is a moving and eloquent testimony to the family tradition that seemed to earmark Manchester United star Barthez for the game with no place for a goalkeeper.
According to folks in La Roque d’Olmes, Barthez had just as much potential to contest the Six Nations tournament that opens this week as the closing stages of the Champions League. Felix Picon, who oversees the local club’s rugby school, said : “I saw Fabien playing for us from the ages of eight to 13. He was a lively boy who was quick, skilful and extremely brave.
“I am quite sure that, with his background, he would have gone all the way if he had stuck with rugby because he had all the gifts. He would have developed into a top-class flyhalf.”
Though Barthez chose to abandon the first organised sport he played in favour of football, the family inheritance has not gone to waste. Even Pierre Berbizier, the former France player and coach, says: “Fabien’s made from other stuff than the classic footballer. He has everything that goes to make a rugby man, the mind, the essential touch of madness afraid of nothing, ready at all times to throw himself into the fires.”
United fans have noted that Barthez is a compelling mix of courage and audacity. Eric Bauzou, a hospital administrator who played rugby with Barthez as a kid, said: “When I see Fabien playing for United, he is just as fearless as he was when tackling lads twice his size. Yes, he would have been a famous rugby star if he’d wanted. We played on the grounds of all the big clubs. He’d certainly have been picked up.”
Joel Bats, a 50-cap France goalkeeper, and Philippe Bergeroo, their World Cup goalkeeping coach, both believe rugby helped make Barthez the player he is. Bats said: “Fabien has such dexterity in his hands and I think it is almost inborn. It comes from having to handle the oval ball, which is more difficult to gather than a round one. He is self-taught.”
And Bergeroo, recently sacked as Paris St Germain’s coach, explained: “I’ve never seen a keeper with such coordination. In Fabien’s native area of Arige, kids play football, rugby, pelota, basketball and handball. He has learned hugely from other disciplines.
“You can see that in the way he acts on visual information. His sense of anticipation is extremely developed. And there are many of the biggest rugby clubs in the country who would love to have that left foot of his.”