Lilian Thuram: ‘I learned something special from Marcus’

Serie A and France legend Lilian Thuram received an award this evening, but confessed he ‘never expected to see my sons play at this level,’ learning something special from Marcus and Khephren.

The former defender was attending the Gran Gala del Calcio in Milan this evening, where the Golden Boy Awards are handed out for the best young players in the game.

This was a very special award for lifetime achievement to the former Parma, Juventus and Barcelona centre-back.

“When you are a child, you dream of playing football, and when they pay you to do it, you can do some wonderful things for your family,” said Thuram.

“I played for many years in Italy and it was a pleasure. I was always pleased to see my name on the various jerseys that I wore, so I couldn’t choose just one.”

Now he has two golden boys of his own, as Marcus is a centre-forward for Inter, while Khephren is a midfielder at Juventus, and both are regulars in the France squad.

“I honestly didn’t expect to see them playing at this level, but many people told me that I was wrong to let them play football as kids,” confessed Lilian.

“I thought that my sons should play football just for the joy of playing. Now I am happy, because they are both happy.”

When it comes to their personalities, the two brothers are very different, and their father made a rare admission.

“I learned something as a father from my son. I have a child who was born with a smile on his face, Marcus. He taught me you can be a serious person even when laughing a lot.”

Even during his playing career, Lilian took a strong stand against racism, and he continues his activism off the field.

“I want to ask fans to reflect on justice within society. We live in a world built on racism and sexism, all of us have our own prejudices. I think it is a general hypocrisy where people don’t want to see things as they are.

“We are the products of our history, and unfortunately there is hypocrisy, this idea that racism should only be fought by those who are the victims of it. We need to emerge from that hypocrisy.”