On May 22 the sociologist Stéphane Beaud spoke to the AAPA about France, football, race and politics, an event pegged to Paris St-Germain’s upcoming Champions League final and the World Cup in North America.
Professor Beaud is the author of various books on football, most recently a sociological biography, Zinedine Zidane. In a conversation with AAPA member Simon Kuper, Financial Times columnist and author of the new book World Cup Fever, Beaud spoke entertainingly and knowledgeably about the French national team’s roots in immigration since the sons of Franco-Polish immigrants dominated the side in the mid-20th century; how the rise of the banlieues has made French football world-class; and the thirty-year battle between the French far-right and the mostly nonwhite national team, with captain Kylian Mbappé recently speaking out against the RN. The event was held in what is becoming our regular and very agreeable meeting-place, the top-floor salle at the Café de la Mairie on the rue de Bretagne.