Before Lens-OM this Saturday (5 p.m.), where he will kick off, Gervais Martel spoke to La Voix du Nord about the serious health problems which caused him to lose around ten kilos.
Lens-Marseille will be a very special match for Gervais Martel. Former emblematic president of Racing (1988-2012, then 2013-2017), he will kick off the meeting this Saturday (5 p.m.), and the emotion promises to be great in Bollaert.
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Because the blood and gold public did not see him for several months this year, between January and September, the fault of serious health problems which kept him away from the stands, as he modestly confided in an interview given at La Voix du Nord. “I caught a annoying disease. Then I caught a bug in the hospital. I couldn't eat anymore. I lost 17 kilos. (…) At 70, you're never safe to catch some diseases,” he testifies. Without losing its humor.
“I was still on the good score sheet”
“It's true, I thought I was going to find all my friends who are up there… They told me that I was still summoned for the next meeting. So I went back down. I was still sure the good scorecard, not the one that goes to heaven,” says Martel, who does not want to use the word “cancer.” “If I hadn't smoked so much, I would have been better off, all the same,” he says simply, with the desire to “put a lot into perspective” what happened to him.
Last summer, Martel ran for president of the LFP, but he did not obtain the necessary sponsorship from the Union of Football Players (UAF), which brings together the unions of players, coaches, referees, administrative staff and doctors.
“It’s a total denial of democracy, we’re among the crazy,” he then denounced in Les Grandes Gueules du Sport on RMC. “But in my life I'm happy, I sent 15,000 underprivileged kids to the Olympic Games with my association and I'm going to go back and take care of underprivileged kids rather than bothering myself with things where we're among the weirdos.”
