Alex Song finds harmony in the family
So cynical and self-regarding have many aspects of football culture become that it takes you aback when the tattooed millionaire you thought you had stereotyped reveals a vulnerable and complex character. Alex Song, the muscular midfielder you will see taking the fight to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, is not the kind of man you might expect.This has been Song’s season. Before the transfer window closed, Arsène Wenger was considering bringing Patrick Vieira back to Arsenal but his faith in Song’s ability to play in the defensive midfield role has been more than justified. As acknowledgement of his exceptional progress, Arsenal have given Song a new contract believed to take him through to 2015. At 22 he is married with two sons and has developed into one of the most important players in one of the most exciting club teams in the world. But something still is not right. ”My eldest son is three, the same age I was when I lost my father,” he explains. “When he comes home from school and he’s saying ‘daddy come play with me’, it makes me think.”Sometimes I just sit on my sofa at home and think ‘I just miss something, I miss something’.
Just talking to you now, I want to cry.”
1½ hours with the children on the wards of Great Ormond Street Hospital so his emotions are raw and this is obviously difficult territory for him. The death of his father and the absence he felt acutely in his childhood have clearly been the shaping force in his life.
“I did not have the chance to know my dad – it was very, very difficult for me. When I was at school I would see my friends getting picked up by their dads at school I did not have anybody.
That is why, when I was just eight years old, I decided I just wanted to be a dad, to have my family close. I want to have the love I did not have when I was young.
When I had my first one [aged 19] I gave thanks to God because I just wanted to have a family. I have two kids and I try to give everything to them, every day.” He was brought up by his devoted, but strict mother, Catrine, with some help and guidance from his uncle Rigobert, the former Liverpool and West Ham defender.
“He helped a lot, a lot,” he said. “It was not easy for me, but he was there. I’m happy with my life today. Maybe if my dad is here now, he is happy too.
”I have my sons, I have my wife, I have a good life, I play football, I love my job. If I had my dad with me to enjoy the life with me, it would be perfect.”
Song left Douala in Cameroon when he was eight and can only recall fragmented images and sensations of his childhood in Africa – playing in the street with his friends, the taste of the food. Initially he moved with his mother to Les Lilas, in the banlieues of Paris.
Cameroon is a francophone country but Song’s thick accent meant he struggled to adapt to French life for the first six months. Eventually, after his cousin pleaded his case, Song’s mother relented and let Song start playing football for the local club. At 12 years old, his life was about to change all over again.
Needing a bigger flat – the family were five to one room – they moved to Saint Ouen in Paris, where Song could see the pitch of local club Red Star from the window of his tower block.
He talked his way into a trial, hoping just to make friends, but the club were soon writing to the French Football Federation to get special permission to promote him up the year groups. Red Star prides itself on nurturing talent: the year before, Abou Diaby had been playing for the same team.
After a youth tournament game with Parma he was spotted by scouts for the Corsican club, Bastia. “After I got home from the game someone just rang me that night to say “Do you want to come to Bastia?”
“I said yes, I don’t know why! Why not? My mum of course said “no” – she knew that when I lost my dad it was very difficult for me.
“To go to Corsica was a very big change and I was just 13. My mum told the manager: life is not easy for him because he has lost his dad, I would like to protect him. But, I don’t know why, I had this good feeling with the manager, so I went.”
That manager was Francois Ciccolini who served as a surrogate father to Song in Corsica, and as he was promoted up the ranks of youth team coaches to the first team, he took Song with him.
No gifted player emerging through a French youth system goes unnoticed at Arsenal. Arsène Wenger invited him for a trial at their pre-season training camp in Austria in the summer of 2005, signed him on loan for a year before making the £1 million deal permanent in the summer of 2006.
It was another transition in Song’s life and another period of protracted loneliness as he lived in a hotel and struggled to learn English.
The following year though, it all came together, as Song’s childhood dream of having a family of his own was realised. “When I was 18 as my wife came to stay,” he said.
“That’s why, at 19, when I had my first son, my life is changed. Now I have the family I want to give everything. I worked for a long time and I want to give everything.”
Alex,May our ancestors continue to guide and protect you.You can count on us Cameroonians and football lovers for the moral support you need to progress in life.Watching you play brings back memories of Marco.
hi, your article about Alexander Song was very nice,i believe he should be one of the best defensive midfilder in the world right now. but point of correction, in your article you said cameroon is a francophone country, i will that’s a BIG no. cameroon is both a FRANCOHONE AND AN ANGLEHPONE country.
Blessings Alex…..
alex go ahead and no obstacle will be fall u.plis cameroon is both having an anglophone region and a francophone region,even though some of our parents can speak neither english nor french.donot give us to francophinie for empty pride
Your patience and determination has greatly paid off. Congrats and continiue with this same enthusiasm. Hope this writer should know more about cameroon and stop potraying that bilingual country as a francophone country
Well i appreciate all your elbows to your hard working,God will make a way when it seems to be no way…with love and strength for your wonder career Alex.
For the writer,you must be very precise when writing because many people are reading several articles everyday.Cameroon is not only a francophone country but make it clear and tell us what actually you were about to say.Thanks…Delaforme
Hi please i know that Cameroon is both French speaking and English so why do you say in your article that this Country is only Francophone Country,i pray you avoid this next time.
Thats what you know but France and the authorities in Cameroon know that Cameroon is a french colony eventhough Cameroon was mandated to the french and the brits. All official documents in this country come out first in french before being wrongly translated into English. Anglophone ministers are obliged to speak french in their offices and in any official address. Everything is being done to surpress english as a language eventhough people dont see. The country is bilingual but not the people. Anglophones are considered 3rd class citizens and only inferior positions are given to them by the french gov’t in power. The Prime minister of that country is English speaking but has no powers and in order to subdue him the more, many francophone vice prime ministers are put in place to check him are they turn to have more powers than him. We should not decive ourselves no pretend for this is the reality that we all know. Even though oil comes from the English speaking part of the country, it’s least developed and even sometimes I hear some frncophones saying anglophones are les biafrias from Nigeria. I wish all francophones could understand the country as I do. I am francophone from the west province. That is Cameroon
Never heard such rubbish, Jacques!
Whether u are francophone or anglophone u are cameroonian.
Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with u all in the States! Being So discriminative is a shame.
Fighting amongst yourselves while you could achieve something coming together.
By the way I am francophone and I love our diversity!
Plz stop the nonsense there!
Yactchi, what are you trying to defend? The fact that a Cameroonian lives in the US doesn’t blind him to the realities that obtain in grossly francophonised Cameroon. Stop defending what’s an open secret to the entire world. By the way, this is what cohorts of the Yaounde dictatorship would normally say.
Hello jacques from maryland, i will agree on some of your comments you just said. Anglphone, civil servants who work in francophone territories in cameroon, do speak only french. English is not considered as our first language, thereby given privilege or upper hands to the francophones. By virtue of law, cameroon is considered as a french colony since they are the majority. So if alex could say cameroon is french, and some anglophones are angry about that? ehm, i believe in reality and this is reality take it or live it. Go Alex and believe in yourself and your career to bring glory to cameroon.
ANGLOPHONE OR FRANCOPHONE THE PEOPLE OF CAMEROON ARE ALL CAMEROONIANS AND THEY SHOULD STOP TO HATE EACH OTHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE IN CAMEROON.
Yatchi, this phrase comes from the above article and i quote, “Cameroon is a francophone country but song ’s thick…….”. Is it correct ?, is it right to say Cameroon is a francophone country ?. what nonsense.
Jaques was right in his analysis. We are all brothers from the same wonderful land regardless of where we have fall bush from.It is Ignorance that creates this discrimination we see endemic in our country. The sensitivity to being described as francophone on this blog mirrors that. All I can offer is that we should take encouragment from the statement that francophone is a mere subgroup of bilingual, modern cameroonians should be ashamed of being described as anglophone, or francophone. It shows we have not acchieved our potential!