“All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football.”
– Albert Camus

Mutual respect, discipline, understanding and a sense of team spirit are as important in football, as they are in our communities.
A football academy – Academie des Gardiens De But – based in the pretty spa town of Luchon, in south-west France, is re-inventing the fusion of sport and community.
Drawing inspiration from two illustrious predecessors – World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, and the author Albert Camus – the unique institution aims to instil the values of citizenship in 11-16-year-olds from around the world and from all walks of life.
Technical Director Jacques Julia says, “Every time a child saves a ball it’s similar to difficult situations they will face in life. Every time they go into a tackle, they need courage and commitment.”
Julia knows the importance of instilling the values of fair play and discipline within sport, to young people who have lost their way in life. He has worked in the most deprived areas of France, known as the banlieue (suburbs), where disaffected youths became embroiled in crime, fought running battles with police and set property and cars alight, during rioting around Paris and other cities.
One of those behind the project is Barthez, the former Manchester United and France goalkeeper, who, despite a long career at the top, never lost sight of where he came from.
“We’re trying to get away from the idea of producing champions – we’re interested in promoting good morals among young adults,” he says. “It’s important for our pupils to learn to become men. I want to give back to football what it has given to me.” As well as the football and life-skills coaching, the students will also receive a conventional education, in line with France’s school curriculum.
“We’ve come here to progress in school as much as in football – gaining and developing good values is important to us,” says Jeremie de Aldiah, 15.

Resilience

Local businesses, the French Football Association and Nike are all supporting the academy. English Premier League clubs are watching the academy’s progress closely.
“Whilst French keepers Fabien Barthez and Elie Baup were the inspiration for the academy, there are parallels with Camus’ writing,” says Julia, a former Toulouse FC coach.
An influential author and thinker, Camus was a semi-professional goalkeeper for the national title-winning Racing Universitaire Algerois in his native Algeria before turning to his literary pursuits.
In 1942 he wrote L’Etranger (The Outsider), his most influential book, which expresses through its protagonist, Meursault, Camus’ view that life has no rational or perceptible meaning. This central theme saw Camus continually state his belief that the universal struggle to attach structure and meaning to our lives is ultimately futile and, in his words, absurd.

The Rebel

The notion of ‘the absurd’ Camus put forward in L’Etranger and in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, led indirectly to the revival of ‘absurdism’ in modern theatre and philosophy.
Like all the best cult heroes, Camus was a committed anti-authoritarian. During the Nazi occupation of France he was active in the French resistance and, in his work L’Homme Révolté, he put forward a savage critique of the Soviet state and of revolutionary politics.
We can consider football as a metaphor for our lives: there are similarities between football (rules, roles) and our everyday life of work, friends and family. It’s a school of life – being in a group, learning to make sacrifices and to be responsible, altruistic (passing the ball) and humble. To be loyal, and to be an example to companions.