Aurélien Tchouameni crosses a course. The 22-year-old midfielder signed on Saturday June 11 with Real Madrid. He left the Rock of Monaco and continued his meteoric rise within the European champion club. Having become a player in the France team on which Didier Deschamps relies, he will join Karim Benzema in the star squad of Merengue. Let’s discover Aurélien Tchouameni.
He was born in Rouen but grew up in Bordeaux
The midfielder of Cameroonian origin has not always lived in Gironde lands, where his career was born. He was born in Rouen, in Seine Maritime, January 27, 2000. His father is a pharmacist and an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, his mother is a senior education consultant. The Tchouameni family left the city of a hundred steeples when Aurélien celebrated his first birthday, thus following his father’s professional development in Dijon, then in Bordeaux in 2005. A city which he then never left throughout his training. If he started football in Artigues-près-Bordeaux, a city in the agglomeration, he joined the Girondins at 11, turned professional there in 2018, before leaving his training club in 2020.
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He played striker until he was 15
Before enforcing his law in the midfield, the new Merengue shook the opposing surfaces as an attacker up to the U15 category. Then, he fell back, a notch first, number 10 (or attacking midfielder), before finding his happiness as a relay midfielder when he evolved into U18 National with the Girondins de Bordeaux.
“I was a striker before being a midfielder. Honestly, I was formidable! I remember that there were plenty of tournaments where I finished top scorer. One day, during the Tournoi de Sens, the coach told me moved back to number 10. I preferred that position because I had more of the ball and more influence on the game.”
Aurelien Tchouameniat the FFF, September 8, 2021
He reads a lot and is inspired by great figures
The neo-Madrilenian likes to draw inspiration from the greatest, through reading, in particular. This is what he said in November 2021 to L’Equipe Explore: “I read biographies of people who have achieved excellencesaid Aurélien Tchouameni. I write quotes that inspire me when I read a book. There, I read one on Kobe Bryant and, before a match, when I need motivation, I will read the passages marked on my telephone. And going from sport to politics is not a problem for him: “I draw inspiration from many areas, I also read Michelle Obama’s book because she is an emblematic figure.”
Motivational habits that are also found in music. At the Louis-II stadium, the player, who is also passionate about the NBA, has, for example, imposed a rap playlist to play during warm-ups.
He is committed against racism
Aurélien Tchouameni also knows how to show the muscles. Insulted in Prague, last August, after scoring against the local team in a preliminary round of C1, he denounced in full match the racist insults of which he was the victim. He then wanted to communicate on his social networks and warn of the seriousness of the facts. “It’s our turn to be heard, racism has no place in football or anywhere else”he wrote in particular, before calling on UEFA: “Having a stance against racism is easy. Acting against it is different.”
OUR TURN TO BE HEARD ✊ pic.twitter.com/XxgkpRuBZc
— Tchouameni Aurélien (@atchouameni) August 4, 2021
This cause, he continues to carry it. He recently met in Paris, through a common sponsor, the American football player Colin Kaepernick who, in 2016, in the midst of the presidential election in the United States, knelt down during the national anthem. American to protest against racism and police violence against minorities.
Among the best since he was 15 years old
At 22, Aurélien Tchouameni is installed in the middle of the France team and seems set to stay there for a while. But before settling down with the “A”, he went through all the young selections of the Blues. Since 2015 and his first cape with the under 16s, he has known Clairefontaine with all age categories. If it is in less than seventeen years that he has known the most selections (14), he has only four with the Blueberries. Blame it on his fairly phenomenal progress, he was quickly called by Didier Deschamps – on August 26, 2021 for the first time – to play with the world champions.
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The player with an imposing size (1.87m) does not intend to stop on such a good path and still has an overflowing ambition. “The World Cup is an important personal goalhe told AFP. It will be a just reward for my work. But it goes through good performances and goals achieved at club level.” And for that, Niko Kovac who trained him in Monaco, thinks he has all the cards in his game to get there: “Aurélien is very intelligent, he knows how to do it. He knows that everyone is focused on him. But he is very strong in his head, very mature. […] When you’re up there, you have to know how to stay humble. He is.” At Real Madrid, Aurélien Tchouameni will now have the spotlight of world football on him and intends to continue to shine his star.