Ao 34 years old, Sikou Niakaté is a renowned French author and director. However, he doesn’t forget his childhood dream of becoming a professional football player, which ended up being shattered due to what he calls “locker room syndrome”, something he tries to draw attention to in the production.In the Dark, the Men Cry‘ (‘In the Dark, Men Cry’, in Portuguese).
In an extensive interview given to this Saturday’s edition of the newspaper The Teamhe himself explained the reasons why he gave up, at a young age, a career in the sport: “When I was a child, I only wanted one thing, which was to be a footballer. I dreamed of Manchester United, with the red shirt, with the number 7, with David Beckham and Patrice Evra. I gave everything for that. I played football for at least three hours a day. I was good.”
“I played in midfield, sometimes as number 10. I was tall, very tall – in high school, I was 1.92 m – but I had technique. I was truly gifted, which is rare for someone who is tall. I had better passing accuracy than all the boys I played with. I was the one who made the crosses, even though I was the tallest, because I was very precise. It was a bit like Yaya Touré’s profile”, he began by stating.
“I played in my neighborhood, in Paris, in the XIX administrative division. Obviously, the question of joining a club arose, but that would have been accepting the idea of collective showers, and that, for me, was unthinkable. Impossible. What I was hiding would become visible”, he added.
But, after all, where did Sikou Niakaté’s shame come from?
Sikou Niakaté continued, reporting: “When I was little, once, I was getting ready to take a shower, while my sister was cleaning the bathroom. We started to poke at each other, she got angry and said to me, laughing, ‘With your little dick’. When she said that, that sentence pierced me, murdered me. I told myself that I wasn’t normal, that my body wasn’t beautiful and that I would have to hide it.”
“Later, after a football game, one of my friends showed me his penis, for no reason, just as a joke, and demanded that I show him mine. His penis was much larger, and I refused. He continued to apply pressure, insisting that it was bizarre for me to refuse. I had no other option. I pulled down his pants and underwear. He looked, held back a laugh, and then exploded, saying ‘You have a really small dick. It’s crazy”, he said.
“I died inside. I walked away looking at the ground, with my head down. I’m a monster. That’s why I decided that I would never play professional football. Never, ever. There are those who say that I didn’t have a career because of my cruciate ligaments. I tore my cruciate ligaments! So, when I played, maybe I would be doubly good, because I compensated for the fact that I couldn’t develop in a team. I’m not saying that I had the level to have a huge career, but I think I could have played in a club, even a good one. club, but showing myself naked was not an option”, he continued.
“I talk about the importance of penis size in my documentary. And, with all the responses I received, I realized that this affects a lot of men. It’s called ‘locker room syndrome’. I thought I was the only one whose head screamed ‘What a shame it is to have this cup’. That never left me. At school, in Physical Education, I always had between 17 and 20 values, but when I got to the pool, I had a 0. I never went. That would have meant wearing a swimsuit, which would squeeze my private parts. Wearing a bathing suit in the shower?
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