The story of a young footballer who oscillates between the joys of his first professional matches, in Rodez and the sadness of the truth about the death of his mother. The story of “Ô captain”, the first book by the neoaveyron author Jasper Pari.
How to juggle between an emerging career in the elite of French football and a weighing past and continuous psychological pressure? This is the story that Jasper Pari tells in his first work “Ô Captain”. Over the almost 140 pages, we discover the story of the young Lucas, a star child of the club of “Rouergue bulls”. The club and the story are fictitious but freely inspired by the 2022-2023 RAF season: the first names of the players Lucas, Lionel or Bradley are not trivial, just like President Pierre-Olivier. Also, a last match of the season tense in the race for maintenance for “Bulls”against the club “Girondin” Who plays the top of the ranking, the references are clear.
An ode to Sport
But then, why Rodez for an author of Parisian origin? Jasper Pari explains: “I am in a relationship with an Aveyronnaise and I fell in love with the department. What seduced me to RAF is that football is less prestigious but we have more surprises, a more accessible sport.” The author thus takes for example this environment, with many landscapes and cult places with Aveyron, portrayed. Among them, the Causse with Marcillac, Bruéjouls in particular but also the burgers “Chez Sébastien”. The book is once again full of references to the department. This book is above all a “Ode to sport” and football, with summaries of matches that are intended to be “more epic and romanticized”. The reader lives each of the actions with the players, feels the games of play, but also the scientists of Captain Bradley or President Pierre-Olivier. The characters around Lucas also take on importance on but especially outside the fields …
“Sport is a springboard for the human adventure that is trained in the pages. The goal is to make a book that can appeal to football fans but also to the general public with the psychological aspect, more intimate”clarifies Jasper Pari. So, in the book, we discover the psychological pressure on the shoulders of Lucas. His captain Bradley continues to torment him, behaves strangely. The reader also lives his love with his childhood friend who will open her eyes to the death of his mother. The author brings here the psychological and extra-sporting dimension in the career of a footballer. A work that bears fruit: “What I appreciated was that people hardly interested in football made me feedback on the book, telling me that he had touched them.”
The book is available in e-book at 2.69 euros and should be released very soon in paper version.
