Selected for the first time by Didier Deschamps on September 12, Jean-Clair Todibo believed that his football career would never take place. He was then nine years old.
Destiny sometimes doesn’t matter much. But the will can rarely change the order of things. This is what happened to Jean-Clair Todibo. The OGC Nice defender who had his very first selection for the A of the France team on September 12, 2023, during the friendly match lost against Germany (2-1), believed he would never be able to play again football. The fault lies in a dramatic accident that occurred in his youth.
During the portrait dedicated to him on the show Téléfoot this Sunday, the native of Cayenne (Guyana) returned to this painful episode, he who was only nine years old when he saw the sky fall on his head. “ I was hit by a car when I arrived at judo with my big sister. I was in a coma for three or four days. » A shock for the child already passionate about football that Jean-Clair Todibo was then.
Pessimistic opinion, but…
When he woke up, he only had one idea in mind: to be able to put his crampons back on as quickly as possible. But the response from the doctor in charge suddenly cooled him down. “ When I woke up, I asked the surgeon if he thought I could play football again. He told me no. » But that was without counting on the determination of Jean-Clair Todibo who finally resumed training to finally be spotted at the age of sixteen by the Toulousain stadium, while he was playing in the regional division. Eight years later, he became a French international. A hell of a revenge.
