Misconduct | What moment of a world sports celebrity in Quebec marked you?

A few days before the highly anticipated arrival of Lionel Messi in Montreal, journalists from the Sports team The Press answer a question with pleasure.

Jean-François Téotonio

The arrival of David Beckham with the LA Galaxy in 2012 came to mind spontaneously. Especially since it will undoubtedly be similar, with a few degrees of madness less, to that of Lionel Messi with Inter Miami – if all goes well on that side. There were 60,860 spectators at the Olympic Stadium, a record crowd. Some were won over by the visit, others quite the opposite. I was far behind all these beautiful people. This world which almost celebrated more than booed its splendid goal scored on a free kick in the 62nd^e minute. One of those spectacularly well-curved shots that made him famous, and which inspired the title of the film Bend It Like Beckham, released 10 years earlier. To see how this day at the Olympic Stadium remained engraved in the collective memory, next Saturday’s evening at the Saputo stadium promises.

Alexander Pratt

The games played by Thierry Henry and David Beckham, in Montreal. The first with the New York Red Bulls, at Saputo stadium, in front of 12,000 spectators. The second with the Los Angeles Galaxy, at the Olympic Stadium, in front of 60,000 people. For me, who had once cheered for the Supra, then covered the Impact’s indoor soccer matches at the Claude-Robillard center, it was surreal to see these two international stars facing a local team. I can’t even imagine the emotions Joey Saputo experienced those days.

Richard Labbé

In 1999, there was perhaps no bigger sports star on this continent than Mark McGwire. The big-armed slugger from the St. Louis Cards was coming off a record 70-homer season, and along with Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, he was in every forum and discussion. In May 1999, McGwire and his Cards arrived at Olympic Stadium for a three-game series against the Expos, and Alain de Repentigny, then the esteemed Director of Sports of The Press, had given me the mission of speaking to the star player. No luck the first two days, because McGwire was always pushing himself. On the third day, as I went to the Stadium by metro, a young rider in the last car tapped me on the shoulder and whispered this question: “Do you like baseball?” » I don’t have time to respond before he points out another subway rider: McGwire himself, standing, clinging to a pole, with a few of his Cards teammates. It was hard to believe it, but yes, the biggest star of the day was there, in a subway car like everyone else, before going to give his show during the very popular batting practices, which have become events in every major league baseball city that summer. McGwire, for his part, will not have said a single word to The Press during this visit here, just muttering that he liked our metro. It’s already that.

Nicholas Richard

It’s difficult to ignore the passage of the greatest athlete in history, Mikaela Shiffrin, in my hometown. Last December, for the first time in ages, the Alpine Ski World Cup circuit made a stop in Mont-Tremblant. In the heart of one of the best seasons of her illustrious career, the American delighted fans and journalists on site by being available, attentive and up to the task, and by finishing twice on the podium. . If we are told to never meet our idols, Shiffrin puts the lie to that saying. It’s almost impossible to find a skier as authentic and likeable as the one with 97 World Cup victories. She moved thousands of people to the Laurentian station and her visit will be remembered for a long time.

Guillaume Lefrançois

It wasn’t a big moment in itself; a simple book launch, if memory serves. But I remember a certain enthusiasm when Sugar Ray Leonard returned to Montreal in 2013. I was still relatively young in the business at that time, and I didn’t have tons of experience outside of the Canadiens and Alouettes. Maybe I was easily impressionable. But even if I wasn’t born at the time of his epic fight against Roberto Duran at the Olympic Stadium, even if I’m not a boxing fan, I knew that we had one of the big names in front of us. sports history. Its accessibility surprised me. The main challenge was not calling him Ray Shougar, like Eddie Murphy in A prince in New York. Which I think I succeeded.

Jean-François Tremblay

Didier Drogba was larger than life. It’s one thing to be a spectacular player, it’s another when your aura helps calm a civil war in a country. His prayer – “We promised you that the celebrations would unite the people, today we beg you on our knees. The only country in Africa with so much wealth must not descend into war. Please lay down your weapons and organize elections” – launched after the Ivorian qualification for the 2006 World Cup effectively led to a ceasefire with the rebels. So when Didier Drogba graced the field in an Impact uniform, I bought myself a ticket, and I allowed myself to only look at the man who is, and will probably remain for a long time, the most important athlete to have stepped on the Montreal soil.