In July 2019, Patrice Evra retired after more than 20 years of career. Two years after leaving the world of football, the former defender is preparing to publish his autobiography entitled “I love this game”. In bookstores from October 28, the book is already talking a lot on a European scale, especially because Patrice Evra makes sad revelations about the sexual abuse that punctuated his adolescence.
The former star of the round ball explains in fact that the principal of his college had at the time, offered to host him at his home several nights a week, to prevent him from being tired by the many trips back and forth between his home des Ulis (Essonne) and its new college. The beginning of an ordeal since the principal sexually assaulted him when he was 13 years old: “Thinking I was asleep, he ran his hands under my quilt and tried to touch me. I knew what he was doing was wrong, so I tried to push him away and hit him. I was strong, but I was afraid […]. It could last 10 or 15 minutes, like a fight. ” he explains.
“He wasn’t kidding; he was trying at all costs to take my pants off. In the dark, he didn’t speak. But he was touching himself and the situation sexually aroused him. […] The last night at his house, when he knew I was going to go home, he finally got it. He put my penis in his mouth. ” Patrice Evra adds in an excerpt from his book released by the British newspaper The Times.“I didn’t want to sleep with the principal anymore”
Unable to engage in this period of his life, Patrice Evra found the courage to confide in his mother only two weeks ago. “Obviously, she (her mother) was devastated. It was difficult for her. […] She realized that something was wrong when I told her that I didn’t want to sleep at the principal’s anymore. But I waited until I was 40 to tell him about it. It was a shock to her. Lots of anger. She told me she was sorry. Not to put that in the book, that it was private. But when I told her that I was not doing it for myself but for the other children, she understood. “.
We note that the principal of his college had been the subject of an investigation in the past and that the police had also contacted Patrice Evra to collect his testimony. Unfortunately, the latter had preferred to remain silent. Released today, he hopes that his testimony will serve to help others and “that the kids have the courage (to speak up) and not feel guilty, because I have always felt guilty.“
Eleanor de la Fontaine