From Rome to London, from Sarajevo to Bakhmout, those who knew the 32-year-old reporter evoke “this same whole and adorable guy”.
Marc-Henri Maisonhaute had heard from his “pal” last Saturday. And once again, it was spitting Arman Soldin: humor in the grave. “This donkey had sent me images of missiles shot in the Ukrainian night, telling me that it had nothing to do with the coronation of Naples at football”, says this friend and fellow journalist, his voice trembling on the phone. This will be their last exchange: the 32-year-old French reporter was killed on Tuesday, May 9, in a rocket strike near Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine.
The one who was video coordinator at Agence France-Presse in Ukraine for seven monthswas accompanied by four colleagues and Ukrainian soldiers when they were caught in the salvo. In a message broadcast internally on Wednesday, and to which franceinfo had access, the director of information of AFP, Phil Chetwynd, specifies that the team was “in an area that was not considered a ‘red zone’ of maximum risk”.
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When the war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022, Arman Soldin was 2,500 km from kyiv. While stationed in the London bureau, he volunteered to cover the conflict. He is one of the first AFP journalists to go there, in March. With his camera, the image reporter covers evacuations at Irpin, the crimes of Boutcha, go on the forehead. “Arman’s brilliant work summed up everything that makes us proud of AFP journalism in Ukraine”greets Phil Chetwynd.
“I believe he will have been through more at 32 than anyone in 80.”
Marc-Henri Maisonhaute, journalistat franceinfo
Marc-Henri Maisonhaute and Arman Soldin had known each other since 2015. An internship at the AFP office in Rome and “hop, we were friends”. “Because Arman was an adorable guy, you could only love him. The head, the hand, the heart: he had all the qualities. He was too good.”
He’s the colleague who always has the right word to relax the atmosphere, even when nothing makes you smile. Daphné Rousseau, her AFP colleague who worked alongside her in Ukraine, has not forgotten the time, in April 2022, where he was singing Forever Young, of the Alphaville group, in the car, as the pair traveled to the Ukrainian front for the first time.
Also in real life, Arman Soldin is “the guy who makes jokes”. A childhood friend sent franceinfo a youth photo taken one evening on vacation on the island of Bréhat, in Brittany. Above, “Armanito”, as the high school band calls him, makes a face … in the company of François Damiens. Belgian actor “was in the same bar as usremembers Guillaume, all smiles. With Arman and the others, I won’t hide from you that we had drunk a lot that evening. We had paid the audacity to go see him to offer him to come with us in the evening after. And you know what ? He came !”
Born in a country at war
At Saint-Martin high school in Rennes, Arman Soldin is never the last to order a Monaco at Urban Phil, the neighborhood café. In Rome, he sways in electro evenings, when he does not take places for festivals in the woods. He sometimes goes up in secret on the roofs of the Italian capital. “It was his side James Dean, replaces Marc-Henri househigh. He loved life, he lived it to the fullest. He did everything thoroughly and everything very well. I was four years older than him, I took him a little under my wing. I taught him to ride a scooter, I was afraid for him.“
Those close to him are convinced that his personal story has shaped his lifestyle. A birth in a country at war, Bosnia, on March 21, 1991. He was one year old when he left Sarajevo with his parents. The family boarded the official French plane in which are also the President of the Republic François Mitterrand and the Minister of Health Bernard Kouchner. Direction Ille-et-Vilaine, where his mfather and his younger brother still live there. Her father lives in Sarajevo. She big sister is in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina). “In truth, he didn’t talk much about his childhood, recognizes William. But I remember he told us that his father had a football career in the former Yugoslavia. I understand better why he was so good too.”
Football, his other passion
So good that the midfielder ended up joining Stade Rennes’ U13 and U15 team from 2006 to 2008. “His life is a pitch, summarizes, touched, his friend Valentin. He was smart, but smart in the good sense of the word. He was always there at the right time.”
On September 7, 2010, here is Arman who finds himself playing the translators for Laurent Blanc, then coach of the French football team which is about to face Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo. “Here, that is Arman Soldin!” smiles Valentin, who still has this souvenir photo somewhere. “The right moment, the right shot.”
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To combine journalism and football, his two passions, Arman even ends up finding a solution. One day in 2019, he knocked on the door of Canal+, which owns the rights to the Premier League. Banco: the encrypted channel entrusts him with interviews and the edges of certain matches of the English championship. “He always worked with a smile”, remembers David Rivet, editor-in-chief of English football at Canal+. “Un day, for Boxing Day, he had fun appearing on the air in the streets of London disguised as Santa Claus!
His last comment dates back to April 15, for a Chelsea-Brighton, on the lawn of Stamford Bridge, between two missions in Ukraine. ATrman Soldin was due to return home to London on May 26. “We had planned it in the device of the last day of the championship”book, moved, David Rivet. Tuesday evening, presenter Hervé Mathoux spoke to him a few words before the Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Manchester City. “We are going to pay tribute to him again this weekend when the show ‘Match of Ze Day’ is taken since he was still part of the team”promises David Rivet.
Guillaume, Valentin, Etienne, David and the whole high school group have planned to meet on Friday evening to discuss “Armanito”. At AFP, a space will be created “to welcome tributes to Arman from those who wish”. Tuesday, when Marc-Henri Maisonhaute learned “the awful news”, he had a reflex: “I opened WhatsApp and sent him a heart. He never replied to me and I cried all night about it.”