Didier Deschamps, the former captain of the French football team and current coach of the Blues, has become a true fan of padel. To the point where he plays it regularly in the south of France. “His sport” is also taking a decisive turn in its development.

After Monte Carlo Padel Master Degrees , we met him to find out more about the links he had with this sport.

“Play whenever I get the chance”

“I play padel mainly in the south-east of France. It’s a sport that I try to practice whenever I have the opportunity. Unfortunately, with all my professional activities, it’s not always easy. But in reality, I discovered this sport and exchanged my first balls in 2009!

And then I remember that I also made rounds on the side of Cassis.

Didier DESCHAMPS: the padel lover!

Like football, padel remains a team sport. You have to know how to exchange with your partner and try to analyze the opponents' positions to adapt. In the end, I think there are many more similarities in padel than you might think.

So it is true that the football player that I am finds himself perfectly suited to this sport which is also less physically hard. When I say hard, I am mainly thinking about contact. Of course, you can have nasty surprises with rackets that telescope, a strong smash that comes straight at you, but the contact in football can be harder and more dangerous than in padel.”

didier deschamps PADEL
didier deschamps PADEL
didier deschamps PADEL

“Get involved in padel. Why not?”

“First I started playing tennis at the Nantes Training Center. But football took over. And I had to get totally involved. So obviously when you have some basic tennis skills, you have the skills to play padel. That's the good news: you can quickly have fun with this sport.

I know that in Spain, padel is a very developed sport. We see some personalities getting into it too. Padel has a lot of assets in its game. Besides, I have never closed the door to embarking on a padel project. But to be honest, if I do it, I want to do it thoroughly. And for now, I have a lot of work to invest in something else.

At Monte Carlo Padel Master, I had the chance to meet incredible professional players who showed us what padel was. I was also able to participate in a small tournament set up by Fabrice Pastor.

Ultimately, padel is my sport. But I really do it as a hobby, with friends. It’s an important moment of relaxation for me and it allows me to stay in shape!”

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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