The Paris 2024 Games are for the whole of France. What will it mean to you for the Olympic Games to be hosted in your home country and what are you most looking forward to?
First and foremost, for me what it was, whenever you had a big event or tournament in your country, what it does generate, and what it does bring to people first and foremost: the joy, but also the desire of wanting to practise a sport.

After that, whatever it is, obviously, with the Olympic Games, you have a lot of choice to be able to do that, the choices are infinite. In my time, for example, you finish watching something on TV, you're going straight to play it. So I would like that to come back.

Also, if it can bring people to do something with it. Like not only go and play in the street, but go and join a club, whatever it is football, it can be tennis, it can be handball, it can be whatever it is, but I hope that is going to bring that back into our culture. And then after what I expect, personally, medals, gold medals. Winning. Because it's great to have a tournament at home and I explain it does bring joy and happiness and brings people together.

But at the end of the day, France is a country that is supposed to have everything in order to win. Are you going to win now? Who knows? But we should be competing a bit better. So hopefully, it will happen this time.



The Olympics are known as the ‘greatest show on earth’ but what was your favourite moment from the Olympic Games over the years?
It's easy for me. Nobody is above Marie-José Pérec for me. No one. That's only me talking. 400 and 200 in Atlanta '96. When she managed to do that, for me, it was my, my greatest moment ever, by distance.

You clocked the highest ever speed [39.2km/h] recorded by a footballer in a major league in 1998. Did you ever consider being an Olympic sprinter rather than a footballer?
Not to make a joke, but you have to stay in your lane. I could play football, it's different, you know. I had zero technique, I was running out of sheer power. Because those guys train, the technique, the way they come out of the starting block, the way they run, they count their steps. I never I never thought about it.

People always used to ask me, how quick would you have been on a one on 100 metre dash? And I was like, I don't know. The most you're running in the game is 40 metres, 50 if you go on the counter. I have too much respect for those guys.

All I know is what I've done. I don't know what I would have done if I was going to be a sprinter. I don't even know if I can even say that at the end of the day. I know I played football. But no, I never thought about anything else other than playing football.



Thinking about our new documentary, what can we expect from Paris, La Vie Sportive?
What you can expect is... I learned some stuff, doing it, doing the voiceovers. And knowing about the town. And what I like is how resilient that town can be. People are going to see that. Through war, through some of the riots that we had back in the days, because of May '68. You guys will not know that, I wasn't born but I heard about it.

But just that through sport, how always Paris has been able to go back up and breathe again. And see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I think that's very important. That's what the Olympic Games brings, it brings hope.

And I think that's something that's very important that you can see that through the documentary because we always associate Paris with style, elegance, fashion, food. Resilience is not always something that comes and it comes through sports also. I think that's very important. And hopefully you can see that and it is going to be translated well in the documentary.

Programming schedule to mark one year until Paris 2024, Wednesday 26 July
20:00-20:30 CEST: One Year To Dream on Eurosport 1 and discovery+ (selected markets)
20:30-21:30 CEST: Paris, La Vie Sportive (Part 1) on Eurosport 1 and discovery+ (selected markets)
21:30-22:30 CEST: Paris, La Vie Sportive (Part 2) on Eurosport 1 and discovery+ (selected markets)
22:30-22:40 CEST: The Olympians on Eurosport 1 and discovery+ (selected markets)