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It did not have to be The Red Devils came out, and with them, crushing sadly, the hopes of this temporarily united nation.
Finally, France's dreaded defense stifled Romelu Lukaku's life, frustrating a team that had brought so much footballing flair and imagination to the finals. Eden Hazard, the captain of the team, after the match expressed with regret a feeling shared by many fans here: "I prefer to lose with this Belgium than to win with this France."
The Red Devils – named in 1906 after Brussels pilot Camille Jenatzy, renowned for his red beard and the first to cross the 100 km / h, is both a unique source of national unity in a deeply divided country between Flemish and Walloon communities and a mirror of this diversity.
To the surprise of the English players when they met 10 days ago, the Belgians speak English in the field and in the locker room, determined not to favor French or Dutch and to exclude other players.
Lukaku & # 39; s is a modern multicultural Belgium story
Kevin De Bruyne, of Manchester City, is a Dutch speaker from Ghent, Flanders, where separatist nationalist parties have been particularly discredited about their hopes for the "national" team.
Hazard is a francophone from Wallonia. In 1998, living in Lille, he wore a French jersey when France won the World Cup, reflecting an ambivalence that many Walloons have with their neighbors.
The two men now share leading roles in the English Premier League. goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, defender Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini and Lukaku
Born in Antwerp in Flanders, of Congolese parents, and raised in Brussels French, Lukaku is recognized for his mastery of six languages - Dutch, French, English , Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili. Kompany talks about it 5.
Lukaku is the history of modern multicultural Belgium, deprivation and struggle in the inner cities, which gave him an extraordinary impulse and determination to escape . He talks about it in a moving interview on the site of the Tribune des Joueurs (ITAL).
Lukaku remembers exactly when he knew that the family was not only poor, but that it was broken. At six o'clock he had returned from his home to Mollenbeek for lunch
"My mother had the same thing every day on the menu: bread and milk.When you are a child, you do not even think about it. But I guess that's what we could afford. "For 10 years, every day.
"Then one day I went home, and I went into the kitchen, and I saw my mother in the refrigerator with the milk can, as usual But this time she was mixing something She was shaking all that, you know I did not understand what was going on
"Then she brought me lunch and she smiled as if everything were cool. immediately realized what was happening
"She was mixing water with milk, we did not have enough money to last all week. Not only poor, but broke. "
Solemn Commitment
It meant a life without power, hot water," borrowed bread, "and no TV, no match of day . A daily grind. That's when he's solemnly pledged that he was going to do the necessary to feed his family. He would play for Anderlecht as soon as they would leave him. Sixteen, said his father.
And at age 16, a few days after his birthday, he played for the first team and never looked back.
"Every game I played was a final. When I played in the park, it was a finale. When I played during the break in kindergarten, it was a finale. I'm serious. I had always tried to tear the lid of the ball every time I pulled it. . . "
" I wanted to become the best footballer in the history of Belgium. . . Not good. Not great. The best. I have played with so much anger, because of a lot of things. . . because of the rats running in our apartment. . . because I could not watch the Champions League. . . because of the way other parents looked at me.
"I was on a mission.
" When I was 12, I scored 76 goals in 34 games. "
" I dressed them all with my dad. shoes. Once our feet were the same size, we shared.
He now plays for Belgium and Manchester United.
"When everything was fine, I read newspaper articles and they called me Romelu Lukaku. , the Belgian striker. When things were not going well, they called me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian attacker of Congolese descent.
"If you do not like the way I play, it's okay, but I was born here I grew up in Antwerp, Liege and Brussels." I dreamed of playing for Anderlecht.I have dreamed of being Vincent Kompany.I will start a sentence in french and finish it in dutch, and i will throw some spanish or portuguese or lingala, according to the We are all Belgian. That's what makes this country cool, right? "
Good.
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