Leïla Slimani talks about soccer in Morocco

Interview
In the second episode of this long-winded interview, collected on the occasion of the release of “I'll Take the Fire”, the end of her “Land of Others” trilogy, the famous Franco-Moroccan novelist returns to the culture of round ball.

There are three major football moments in my novel: the birth of Inès, the 1998 World Cup and the France-Morocco match of 2022. For me, this sport was very interesting for several reasons. First of all, because football has always been part of my life. My father spent part of his career there: he was president of the Moroccan Federation, he won the African Cup in 1976, the greatest moments when I saw him happy were football moments. And I was born during a football match, like one of the characters: the scene is totally true, my father asked my mother to wait until the end of overtime… and my mother waited a very long time, drinking a few cups of champagne to keep you going.

I like this story of a character who, a bit like Obélix, was born in the pot of football. Besides, I always like watching matches, it reminds me of my father. I see his attitudes again. Because it's also a whole attitude of the body, the way of watching football: moving forward, getting up, shouting… As I really like writing about the body, I find that it says something. We are both static and inhabited by something…