Soundtrack from across the Atlantic, official supporters club and cheerleaders at every stoppage of play: there is an air of America at the Jean-Bouin stadium, in the shadow of the Parc des Princes, for Paris home matches Musketeers, the only French club in the European American Football League.
Flanked by tricolor jerseys and a strong identity derived from the French and Parisian cultural imagination, the Musketeers emerge from the locker rooms before each match carried by the traditional spectacle that accompanies American sports leagues. The tifo who stands in the stands, although coming from the « soccer »is inspired by the motto of D’Artagnan and others: “One for all, all Parisians”. Most of the workforce is from the Paris region.
Austin Mitchell of the Paris Musketeers (background) during the European Football League match against Germany’s Frankfurt Galaxy at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris on June 9, 2024. / Julie SEBADELHA / AFP
The club’s logo also recalls the elite soldiers made famous by Alexandre Dumas: a large white cross, a modernized version of the cross worn by the musketeers in the past.
The Paris Musketeers is the first French professional American football club. It is playing for the second consecutive year in the European League of Football (ELF), a private continental competition that brings together 17 franchises across Europe divided into three conferences, West, Central and East.
Double vie
A professional practice, but time-consuming and exhausting. The team regularly travels to cities in the Western Conference such as Berlin, Cologne or Madrid, so it may happen that it does “more than 20 hours of bus travel” to go play in Hamburg, confides defensive back Maxime Roger. The next trip is scheduled to take place at the Bravos de Madrid on July 20.
Quarterback Hugo Tekedam of the Paris Musketeers during the European Football League match against the Frankfurt Galaxy at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris on June 9, 2024. / Julie SEBADELHA / AFP
“It’s professional because we get paid no matter what happens during our season, but we stop getting paid when we stop playing at the end of the season.”explains Rémi Bertellin.
For the 30-year-old receiver, joining the Paris Musketeers was a “no-brainer,” even if his salary is still too low to live on. ” GOOD “ imposes on him a second job as an IT consultant.
So he agrees to sacrifice his free time “with family, friends, girlfriend, you had very little free time during the season or off-season”.
Hugo Tekedam also leads two lives. The first with Paris, as a quarterback or receiver, the “control tower that makes decisions in the game or the one who receives throws to gain ground”the second as a student to become a sports coordinator.
“The most supporters”
“It’s a lot of investment, but it’s a lifestyle that I’ve been used to since a very young age, as soon as I finish school I go to sports, so nothing new for me”explains the 22-year-old player, who lives in La Courneuve in Seine-Saint-Denis.
A Red Company supporter cheers on the Paris Musketeers during a European Football League match against the Frankfurt Galaxy at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris on June 9, 2024. / Julie SEBADELHA / AFP
After decades of amateurism despite an Elite Championship of 12 teams, competition from rugby union, the practice of which is more developed in France, the arrival of professional American football in France is taking place slowly but in the city “ideal”according to Maxime Roger.
The 27-year-old engineer played American football in several French clubs before arriving at the Mousquetaires when they were created in 2023. “It’s in Paris that the best players are, it’s also there that we can have the most supporters behind us”he explains to AFP.
Last year, the club was able to count on an average of 3,867 spectators at home with a record of 4,500. Given the success, the club opened the second side stand of Jean-Bouin.
The club’s stated objective is to reach the play-offs this season, which the Parisians narrowly missed last year with a record of 6 wins and 6 losses, the best of the new structures entering the competition in 2023.
