The TV commentator spoke his mind, was never boring and became a national institution
Even by modern standards, the minute's silence before France lost to Sweden on Tuesday was unusual. Rather than a tribute to a former player or manager, or to mark a national tragedy, it was dedicated to a TV commentator – French football's notoriously risqué Thierry Roland.
The self-styled "voice of French football" for the last three decades, Roland died on 16 June, aged 74. The list of those who paid tribute said everything about the impact his colourful, edgy passion made on French football culture – from Zinedine Zidane to the new French president, François Hollande, who said: "The world of football loses one of its most popular and fierce supporters."
Roland was hardly universally admired – his instincts when excited included lively jingoism and rank sexism, leaving him revered and vilified in equal measures. But his popularity extended far beyond the game, making him a national institution. In his own parochial, France-centric and politically incorrect way, he was the king of the one-liner. To huge swathes of supporters, he was "one of us" – his patter, as well as his passion, resonating deeply with his large audience.
He formed a famous broadcasting partnership over 25 years with the former France international Jean-Michel Larqué. The pair got on well, and had their tense moments too. At the 2002 World Cup, during the Brazil v Germany final, they clashed at length, to the delighted astonishment of listeners, like two bickering old men in some timeworn bistrot. "Jean-Michel, you really are pissing me off big time … Stop breaking my balls for Christ's sake! I don't give a toss that you're defending Laurent Blanc. I know I am right!"
During a career spanning more than 50 years, Roland commentated on 13 World Cups and nine European Championships as well as numerous other games (more than 1,300 in all). His live outburst against Ian Foote, the Scottish referee of a 1976 France-Bulgaria game, transformed him into a household name: "I'm not afraid to say it: Mr Foote, you're a bastard! What this referee has just done is unacceptable, it's daylight robbery! He is an absolute and utter disgrace!"
Ten years later, during the Hand of God England v Argentina game at the Mexico World Cup, he prompted a diplomatic incident with a slur against all Tunisians, based only on the nationality of the referee. His outbursts and faux pas often triggered national debates, but also made for television gold. The ultimate recognition came when Les Guignols (the French Spitting Image) on Canal Plus gave him his own puppet.
It was straight after the final whistle of the 1998 World Cup final, France v Brazil, that he delivered his most notorious line, live, to the nation: "After seeing this, one can die in peace! Though hopefully not too soon … This is great, fuck, this is the bollocks!" It was a raw, uncouth, emotional moment, likened in magnitude, if not in poetry, to Kenneth Wolstenholme's 1966 moment.
Over the decades, uneasy TV executives tried to sideline him (in 1968, he was sacked by the ORTF, the De Gaulle government-controlled media agency) but a groundswell of support from the viewing public made the powers that be back down. Eventually, in June 2005, the controversy-shy TF1 (France's most‑watched channel, backed by leading advertisers) took the plunge and axed him. For his last commentary on TF1, he was at his theatrical best. At the end of the game, in front of the cameras and sat next to Arsène Wenger and Larqué, he burst into tears.
Four months later, sensing that there was still a demand for Roland's unique brand of punditry, the TV channel M6 offered him a contract and he formed an uneasy duo with the often-derided Frank Leboeuf. Roland's absence had created a void and made M6 aware that he embodied the antithesis of a wave of bland, squeaky-clean commentators that shy of saying anything vaguely controversial. As such, Roland was, and will be, missed by many viewers.
He had been due to commentate at Euro 2012 with Larqué on M6 but was belatedly forced by his ill-health not to travel to the Ukraine. "A crap country where I would have been bored senseless," was his view.
As for his legacy: just like David Coleman and Ron Atkinson, Roland coined a string of colourful and idiosyncraticphrases that are now firmly rooted in the lexicon of everyday French (songs have even been made with his Rolandisms). Among his favourites were "The ball went in the zig but he went in the zag"; "He was scythed down like a rabbit in full flight"; and "il a avalé la trompette" – literally meaning "he's swallowed the trumpet", his term for a player who has run out of steam. Many have wondered if that was the sentence he would have chosen as his epitaph.
Kevin Quigagne is a football writer for Les Cahiers du Football Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
