The French Inter striker was born in Parma, the historic blue defender is from Tripoli, Eusebio was African, Mavuba was even born on a boat. Stories of those who embrace a homeland you choose
The boat – because that could not be called ship – was beaten by the waves, dangerous navigation. But the greatest danger had left it behind: the civil war. Angolan refugees. Among them Thérèse, eight months pregnant. The sea grew, “Marseille lights never come” and the woman couldn’t take it anymore. He gave birth there, in the middle of the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa. A boy. With her husband Mafulia he decides to give him a name that reminds the water on which he came to the world: Rio. Rio Mavuba, “born at sea” on March 8, 1984, as his documents play, and “stateless” until the age of majority, when he gets French citizenship. In the meantime he lost his mother at two years and his father at 13. But on the other hand he soon found his way, the same as his father, a former Zaire national team at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. He begins to play football among the children of Bordeaux, in midfield like him, and stays there until 2007. But he will be in Lilla who will exceed him, captain for eight seasons of the team who with Rudi Garcia in 2011 won the championship. He also dresses the blue of France and with that will play a world championship 40 years after his father. Always with that mild air, the a little sad expression even when he smiles. It will be the legacy of what has passed since birth, the same that today makes him support a foundation that deals with Congolese orphans. But when in a lilac-paris Saint Germain crosses Ibrahimovic who puts his hands on him, Zlatan has the worst. Why will Ibra be born in the ghetto, but do you want to put with one born at sea?