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Demba Ba, cloakroom leader

A shin swung like a false slash in wheat. The nets shiver. PSG are eliminated. It was perhaps Demba Ba’s last brilliant achievement on a football field, one Champions League night in 2014 with Chelsea; at least, the most vivid memory of Parisian supporters with regard to the Franco-Senegalese. Tuesday, everything flew away. During the match between Paris-SG and his club Basaksehir, the striker is a substitute. And decisive.

“Responsibility”

The Parc des Princes is empty, the cameras capture everything. Demba Ba apostrophe the central referee: “Speaking of a white player, you say ‘that guy’ and not ‘that white guy’. So why do you say “that black dude” to talk about a black player? “ A few moments earlier, the fourth referee had appointed the assistant coach of the Istanbul club, Pierre Achille Webo, using the word “black”, “Black” in Romanian. Demba Ba, balaclava in the cold, does not budge, very quickly assisted by the stars of PSG Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. All the players line up behind the attacker and leave the lawn of the Parc des Princes to return to the locker rooms. The match will not resume.

Read alsoPSG-Basaksehir match: the drop of water that overflows football

Ba is one of those miracles of football. No training center, years of hardship. An enigma on the scale of a sport which often punishes those who take side roads. “Just the fact of becoming a professional was a victory in itself”, he recalls in the Parisian. Child of Sèvres, in Hauts-de-Seine, he supports “PSG since childhood”. Family “very modest” as he says, the sixth of a family of seven. Barely of age, he leaves for London. Pass tries in second class clubs by turning “With chips and water”. Finally joined Rouen, before leaving for Mouscron. Nomadic life. In Belgium, he broke his leg for the first time. In So Foot : “While I was still in the field, with the Z-leg, the first thing I think about is asking the doctor how long it will take to recover.” Popular fervor in Newcastle followed, a failed stint in Chelsea, Turkey for the first time, exile in China …

“Power”

In Shanghai Shenhua, in 2018, the Senegalese international (22 capes, 4 goals) finds racism on the ground, when an opponent insults him during a championship match – the latter subsequently receives a suspension of six games. “At our level, we can imitate the attitude of Moussa Marega [cible de cris racistes, le joueur du FC Porto avait quitté la pelouse en février, ndlr], but if [de tels faits] reproduce, the 22 actors must leave the field. It’s up to the players to take their responsibility ”, he explained to Parisian at the end of October, shortly before the first leg against PSG.

Read alsoIn Italy, racism to the top

Very active on the networks, Demba Ba comments in September 2019 on the racist cries that Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku is experiencing in Cagliari. “And that’s why I decided not to play [en Serie A] when I could… I would like all black players to leave this championship. ” “The culture of racism in football cannot be debated, we all know it exists, Ba says. It’s very difficult. I don’t want to victimize African players, but at the same time I know we are underestimated. ”

Read also“At the Parc des Princes, we witnessed a revolution”

While more and more athletes are freeing their word on social issues (especially in the wake of NFL and NBA players, who have supported Black Lives Matter), Ba has recently protested against the beating of the producer. Michel Zecler music by three police officers or the silence of the international community on the fate of the Uyghurs in China: “When are we going to see the rest of the world standing up for Muslims? […] As athletes, we have a power that we don’t even know. If we stand up, people stand up with us. ” Tuesday evening, Demba Ba got up. He left the field. Twenty-two players followed him in his revolt, and soon the world of football.

Romain Boulho

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