Difficult to consult him in his bed, rather well propped up in front of his fireplace. The official book soberly titled “Paris 2024” is essential for this end of year. The texts written by Mejdaline Mhiri and Damien Burnier, throughout the competition they attended, allow us to look back on the great moments of the Paris Games, and there are many of them. The medalists, the richly illustrated report on each sport, everything is there. A book for History.
“Paris 2024” at Hugo Sport (320 p. 44.95€)
“The French basketball team (according to TrashTalk)”
Trash talk is trash talk on the basketball floor. It is also a website which develops another way of seeing this sport, in an offbeat and always cultured way, in the style of So Foot for the smallest round ball. The editorial team of the site takes a step aside to present a very beautiful book on “the great history” of the French basketball teams. Stats, photos, anecdotes, the preface by Jacques Monclar, a treat.
“The French basketball team (according to TrashTalk), Marabout (356 p., €39.90).
“Tokyo fight”, the path of Le Banner, the restless one
It was before the wave of “MMA”. In the mid-90s, a young boxer from Normandy set out to try his luck in K-1, the new kickboxing league which brought together the best heavyweights. Several times world champion, Jérôme Le Banner would become a star in Japan, earning thousands of dollars. Then getting lost and losing everything, being forced to steal to eat, before redemption, and this final fight in Kumamoto in 2024 at age 51. Written by Karim Ben Ismaïl, senior reporter at l’Équipe, “Tokyo fight” is a biography that reads like a novel, from solitary childhood in Seine-Maritime to trips with the yakuza (the underworld) in the nights from Tokyo. It is “the story of a restless person on the path to inner peace”.
Tokyo fight. The Arenas. 208 pages. 20 euros.
“The illustrated history of the XV of France”
From the first international match of the Blues on 1is January 1906 against New Zealand until the heartbreak of the World Cup quarter-final lost against South Africa, Ludovic Ninet for the texts and Julien Dugué for the illustrations revisit the great history of the XV of France. It’s lively, well-executed, exhaustive and synthetic, with relevant angles of attack. There is “French flair” in this transformed essay.
The illustrated history of the XV of France. Hugo Sport. 208 pages. 29.95 euros.
“The crazy superstitions of champions”
Always the same underwear, the left sock first, always, or a few drops of holy water in the opposing team’s cages: what athlete, what leader, what team doesn’t have its little ritual, its little superstition before a competition? From the most anonymous to the greatest champions, they all have their “trick” to try to master this famous glorious uncertainty of sport, reverse destiny or fend off injury. Etienne Bonamy, Christophe Duchiron and Manuel Tissier have listed the craziest superstitions of champions. Moving and funny, a little favorite among the end-of-year publications.
The crazy superstitions of champions. Solar. 171 pages. 24.90 euros.
“The Magnificent Ones”. Their names were André and Guy Boniface
André Boniface left us on April 8. The Landais three-quarter from Montfort-en-Chalosse, legend of Stade Montois, joined his much-loved younger brother, Guy, who left on January 1 after a tragic road accident. He was not thirty years old. He was international, like his brother. André and Guy have left moments of grace and magnified memories in the collective memory of lovers of the beautiful game. And who better than Yves Harté, born in Saint-Sever, former major reporter (Prix Albert-Londres) to tell this story of brotherly love and magnificent rugby?
The magnificent ones. Their names were André and Guy Boniface. Sud Ouest Editions. 140 pages. 25 euros.
For a champion mentality
