Emmanuel Petit owes a lot to Arsène Wenger. French international in 1990 under the orders of Michel Platini, the left -hander became an essential player in AS Monaco but by being lugged in the posts of central defender, left -back and defensive midfielders. For example, he did not participate in Euro 1996 in England and decided to leave the Principality club in 1997 to join his mentor in Arsenal. Petit has imposed itself directly in the midfield of the Gunners and made the double Premier League-Fa Cup before offering the 98 World Cup with the Blues, even scoring the 3rd goal in the final against Brazil.
Now working on RMC, “Manu” Petit will support Arsenal, one of his heart clubs, during the semi-final of the Champions League against PSG, on March 29 at the Emirates Stadium for the first leg meeting then on May 7 at the Parc des Princes for the return round. After the qualification of the Gunners against Real Madrid on Wednesday evening, the world champion recalled, amused, that he had not left a “Indelible trace” At FC Barcelona, his club during the 2000-2001 season, with whom he did not win any title.
After a third season at Arsenal marked by defeat in the final against Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup (0-0, 4-1 Tab), Petit decided to change its air by joining FC Barcelona, in particular to please his wife of the time, actress Agathe de La Fontaine. In addition to leaving Arsène Wenger, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry in London, Emmanuel Petit then discovered the deleterious atmosphere of the Blaugranas cloakroom. Rivaldo, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert were the offensive stars, but the team led by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer was mainly controlled by the Catalan players.
Emmanuel Petit aims Guardiola and Luis Enrique
Small tells RMC in 2022: “I experienced racism in the locker room of FC Barcelona. Me and from time to time some players, including a player whose name I will not cite, the poor. I wondered if we were in a football locker room. Some players wanted to come to the fists, I said what I thought about the Catalans' clique, tell them that I came to football, not for problems that have nothing to do with football ”. Racism with “Color players?” »» We ask him on the set. “Yes, too”he replies.
“I could never imagine what was going on in the Catalan locker room. Catalan identity, permanently nationalist omnipresence. Foreigners, we were second knives, unless you were a player like Rivaldo who was capable of being the X factor and switching a match. But overall, it was the Guéguerre between the Dutch, the Catalans and the rest of the world. We were the Benetton team, there was no link ”continues the one who then left for England by signing in Chelsea in 2001.
Emmanuel Petit remembers young Carles Puyol and Xavi “Adorable”a Serra Ferrer coach ” kind “,, “But afterwards, the group that we know today and who are all coaches, that's it”therefore targeting Pep Guardiola (a real Catalan) and Luis Enrique (arrived in 1996 and become one of the leaders of the cloakroom). And conclude:
“For weeks and weeks, I swallowed snakes, I closed my mouth, then at one point, I said maybe with work, humility, people will change, some people will change towards me, it has never changed, it was always submission permanently”.
