A surprising reconversion. Captain of Saint-Nazaire Volleyball Atlantique, Ludovic Duée spoke about his professional future with our colleagues at West France. Author of a very good season with the Mariligère club, the libero is preparing to play the final of the French Volleyball Championships against Tours for his last professional matches.
If he will experience the peak of his career at the age of 32, by trying to win his first French Championship, Ludovic Duée is however preparing to hang up his knee pads and play the last two matches of his career. A choice which may seem surprising for the man who won the European Under-19 Championship alongside Earvin Ngapeth in 2009, as he still seems to have many good years at the highest level ahead of him.
“By no means a default choice”
As he explains to the regional daily, this decision is “by no means a default choice”. After this career which he intends to end in apotheosis, the native of Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine) wishes to turn to religion by becoming a priest. A choice that he places “between a vocation and a profession”, which he wanted “from the deepest of [son] be. »
Coming from a practicing Catholic family, he nevertheless claims to have followed the movement “to avoid having problems rather than anything else”. “I always believed in God, but I stuck to the union minimum. I saw God, with a weapon, ready to hit me if I got out of the way,” he confesses.
It was at the time of Covid-19, at a period when he considered that he was “not necessarily very balanced”, that he met the community of canons regular of Lagrasse (Aude), allowing him to to change his mind regarding his faith. “I went from a threatening Father who was there to hit, to a loving God. I discovered that God loved me, and that he only wanted one thing, that I love him too. That was the basis of this journey,” explains the 1m92 guy.
Similarities between religion and high-level sportsman
Following his career which he hopes to end in apotheosis with a title of champion of France, Ludovic Duée will therefore return to the postulancy (Editor’s note, the first test of religious life). “I will be in civilian clothes for a period of three to six months, where I will experience everything from the inside with the canons to get to know this community better, and find out if it can really suit me and suit them most. long term. It’s a period of discernment,” he explains to Ouest-France.
If he is therefore preparing to experience a big change, he does not fail to recall the few similarities between the life of a high-level athlete and a man of faith. “The very regulated schedule, a community life… It’s a group with schedules that move in the same direction, it’s obviously reminiscent of what I’ve been doing for years,” assures the future young retiree.
