2022 World Cup: Lilian and Marcus Thuram, world champions from father to son?
This Sunday, December 18, Marcus Thuram will play the final of the World Cup in Qatar, against Argentina. Like her father Lilian, she can become a world champion. A rare destiny. In 1998, little Marcus was 11 months old. A look back at this extraordinary family legend at the Overseas Archives.
In the history of football, there will never be a father and a son who become world champions. This Sunday, December 18, in Qatar, with the final of France-Argentina, Marcus Thuram has the opportunity to join the top of the football planet, his father Lilian, who was titled in 1998.
Wednesday, December 14, after the victory in the semi-final against Morocco, Marcus Thuram did not forget to send a wink to his world champion father, Lilian. On his Instagram account, he posted a moving photo of him as a baby in his father’s arms, taken in 1998, a few months after his birth (August 6, 1997). Below is a picture of Marcus in the 2022 semi-final.
At the time of the successful Blues epic, in June and July 1998, Lilian Thuram was a young father. Her first son, Marcus, is 11 months old. He mentioned this in an interview with Clairefontaine, on the microphone of José Blezès, who asked him why he gave up the career as a priest, which he thought about when he was a child in Guadeloupe.
When I was young, in the West Indies, I wanted to be a priest. But a priest cannot have children. I can’t imagine myself without children. I see it on my son Marcus who is 11 months old, it’s the cutest!
Lilian Thuram, July 1998INA / RFO archives
For a long time, Lilian Thuram hoped that her sons would escape the reputation of “son of…” and not choose a career in football. In 2020, in an interview with L’Equipe, the Guadeloupean explained about Marcus and his brother Kephren:
I want them to do other sports. Marcus started in judo and fencing. We used to live in Italy. I knew very well that if I put him in football, he would be Thuram’s son. At his age, it was difficult for him. So he just played at home, or in the park with his friends
Lilian Thuram, in 2020The team
Finally, in 2006, when his father was transferred to Barcelona, Marcus started playing club football. A consuming desire that would never leave him. Trained at Sochaux, he worked for Guingamp before joining the German club Borussia Mönchengladbach where he plays as a striker. Guest in 2017 of the “Couleurs Sport” program, in France Ô, Marcus Thuram told how he confessed to his father that he really wanted to be a professional footballer, and what was the latter’s reaction:
He asked me if this was really what I wanted to do most in the world. I answered him yes. He gave me the weapons to make my dreams come true.
Marcus Thuram, October 2017Sports Colors
Watch this interview conducted in October 2017 by Ismael Mohamed Ali:
Marcus Thuram is constantly asked by journalists about this filiation, about the difficulty of being “the son of…”. His discourse on this recurring issue has never varied. So, in 2017, he has the same philosophy:
We are all children of one person. I’ve been used to it since I was young. But on the field, the opponent doesn’t let me dribble because I’m the son of…
Marcus Thuram, October 2017Sports Colors
Watch this excerpt from the Couleurs Sport interview:
Marcus Thuram explains that his father instilled in him above all the values of work and effort.
My father’s role was to always remind me that work comes first, to question me, but never to doubt myself.
Marcus ThuramSports colors
As he explained to Couleurs Sport, Marcus Thuram speaks five languages (Italian, Spanish, English, Creole and French), his first name refers to Marcus Garvey, a figure of Pan-Africanism, and he also has a small sibling. , also a footballer (at OGC Nice), Khephren. Watch his confidences on Colors Sport:
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