Audrey Crespo-Mara dedicates her portrait of the week in seven to eight to Yannick Noah. The former tennis champion turned singer spoke about his new life as a village chief in Cameroon. And he was very moved when talking about his father’s reaction after his victory at Roland-Garros.
Yannick Noah still counts, almost forty years after his victory at Roland-Garros, among the favorite personalities of the French. Tennis player, then singer, he has now completely changed his life. After the disappearance of his father, he decided to leave France and settle in Cameroon. “From the moment my father left, I naturally became the chief of the village”, he had explained to the cameras of Brut. In the portrait of the week of seven to eightbroadcast this Sunday, May 8 on TF1, the former champion returned for Audrey Crespo-Mara on this new challenge.
Yannick Noah trains children in tennis
“Tradition is that the grandson becomes the village chief. So I am the village chief. It may be ten thousand people,” he specifies to the companion of Thierry Ardisson. Yannick Noah then says a little more about his new life and the concerns that accompany it. “For me, it’s a bit strange. Because I feel very French. And so when I get there, inevitably, I rely on the advice of the elders. And in fact, my role is to help as I can. . So, I get a little bit of the problems. There are grievances”, he continues. He thus tries to help the elderly, in a country where health is expensive, but also to advise or help the youngest. The former coach of the French Davis Cup and Fed Cup team also trains village children in tennis. “I have a young girl in particular, who plays really, really well, who has extraordinary qualities”, he observes. And the French champion even has a “crazy dream” for his young pupil: “It’s a day to be in the stands and to see the little one return to the center at Roland-Garros”.
“That day, I achieved the goal of my life”
Yannick Noah also returned with emotion, once again, to his historic victory at Roland-Garros. A feat that no Frenchman has accomplished since. “That day, I achieved the goal of my life”, he pointed out. “I was playing in France, I was playing at home. But at that moment, Dad had this idea to put even more emotion by jumping on the ground. The day I’m going to die, we’re going to show this picture. I wish everyone to have the chance to cry of joy in their father’s arms, one day. I really wish that”he confided with emotion. “It’s all the stronger that I have the film. I have this film of this moment that I will keep forever. This is what is in me. I cried with joy in my father’s arms”, he added, his eyes moist.
Yannick Noah is rare. It must be said that, for more than a year, he returned to live where he grew up, in Cameroon, in the village of Noah, of which he became the chief on the death of his father.
A new life that he tells tonight, at 7:30 p.m. on @ TF1 in front of @audrey_crespo. pic.twitter.com/fe4n9YzQvN— Seven to Eight (@7a8) May 8, 2022
