AAt the same time that Spain was celebrating the achievement of EuroBasket 2022, Thomas Heurtel, international with France, formalized his transfer to Zenit Saint Petersburg. A fact that would not be out of the ordinary, unless that same summer, the French Basketball Federation made its internationals sign a letter in which each one said they were not “committed and that they did not plan to sign with a Russian or Belarusian club”. . For this reason, while the exclusion measures from all international competitions were in force, the former player of Baskonia, FC Barcelona or Real Madrid, among others, He was expelled from the national team two years before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A decision that led the international to be subjected to social pressure. The French and basketball lovers did not understand that decision that could make them lose one of their best players for their Games. Faced with these criticisms, months later, the player has granted an interview to the French media The team to defend his version of events and his vision of what happened.
When I signed the letter, I had not yet chosen Zenit, but it was one of the most important options
The signing for Zenit and its consequences
According to Thomas Heurtel himself, when he signed this letter that could take him out of the national team “he had not chosen Zenit, but it was one of the most important options.” An argument that he defends for being “the best situation” for him and his family: both financially and in terms of the game project “. A decision that ended up coming and for which it cost him the expulsion of the national team led by Vincent Collet and about which he admits that “he was not ready”. Although he assures that “they are the ones who decided that, it was not me who made that decision.”
The signing, according to the player, is carried out because he has nothing else, although he qualifies: “Not at the price I’m asking. The wages they pay here are different!! I am more at the end than at the beginning of my career. What do I have left? Four or five years…”
Russia, the war… and France
The interview continues to raise the tension and the journalist talks about war crimes and bombing of civilians by the Russian offensive. At which point he snaps: “But what does this have to do with my situation? Well, they do that. But that doesn’t mean I support what they do“. In addition, he asserts that if the French government does not want him to go to Russia, that they pay him the difference in the contract.
But I don’t take money from people who kill…
Heurtel plays for Zenit Saint Petersburg, a club owned by Gazprom, the largest Russian state-owned company “whose revenues are partly used to finance the war”, the interviewer affirms after affirming the player that he did not accept money from “the people who kill”. When refuting the argument, he admits that he can be “part of the system” for the club where he is playing. An answer that ends up putting his future in doubt: “We will see what happens in two and a half months”when your contract ends. And where he ends, defending that he simply does his job: “Like I have a gun and I’m going to fight… No, I’m just doing my job, that’s all.”
