Aurélien Tchouaméni: Meet the French soccer star everyone is talking about
You can’t go to soccer games in France without seeing Aurélien Tchouaméni, France’s current number one.
He’s French, he plays in the top team in the French league, and he’s the world’s most popular soccer player.
“It’s a special club,” says French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “It has to be so to be number one in the world.”
Tchouaméni’s club, Auxerre, is no longer a soccer team—it’s a media company, making Tchouaméni a media sensation. “The club is owned by a conglomerate,” explains Tchouaméni. “It owns many of the media outlets in France, and even in other countries.”
In other words, for now, Aurélien Tchouaméni is a multi-media superstar.
His career began with Auxerre, the club he began playing for at age nine. He has won the French league championship and been called up to the national team for two World Cup qualifiers. Now a star in France, he’s earned the nickname “Mr. Number One of soccer.”
He also played for a few teams in England, but he grew up in France and doesn’t live there anymore. “My life is in France,” he tells me in his apartment.
In addition to his soccer life, Tchouaméni is an entrepreneur. When he’s not playing for Auxerre or the national team, he’s taking on other jobs, like running a publishing company called Éditions Du Figaro, which has published works by J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie, and Albert Camus. “I like to think that they are my kids.”
At the time of this recording, he is on tour with French-Australian singer songwriter Cee Lo Green and his band the Social House. “I will be speaking