Berlin (AFP)

Goals, an engaging personality, a remarkable tribute to George Floyd ... Marcus Thuram, son of Lilian, is gradually making a name for himself in Germany, where he will be Mönchengladbach's main offensive weapon on Saturday in Munich against Bayern ( 6.30 p.m. / 4.30 p.m. GMT).

For the time being, this 22-year-old slender striker is still just a French international Espoirs and, on the courts, his father's shadow still hangs over him: defender of the France team, Lilian was world champion in 1998, and his double in the semi-final against Croatia (2-1) made him a legend.

But Marcus is much more than a "son of ...", even if he is very close to his father, whose long-standing commitment to racism he admires.

On May 31, the photo of the young man kneeling on the ground to celebrate a goal went around the world, on the web and in the newspapers. Thuram, on his own initiative, became the first footballer to pay homage by this symbolic gesture to George Floyd, the black father killed by the police at the end of May in Minneapolis, in the United States.

Borussia claims to have received in the following days "dozens" of interview requests for its star player.

- "Proud of my father" -

A week later, the full teams of Bayern Munich and Dortmund, the two most powerful clubs in Germany, knelt down, as Thuram had done, as a sign of rejection of racism.

"Of course as a young black player, the question worries me," he said in December in an interview with AFP, well before the current wave of protest: "We have to fight and I'm very proud of what my father is doing to make a difference. "

Even if, born in a privileged environment, he affirms that he did not personally suffer from discrimination based on his skin color: "I was neither victim nor witness", he says, before recovering "... finally, witness if, we are witness on social networks and when we watch matches on TV ".

The player's gesture and words might not have gone so far if he had not been one of the two spearheads of the fantastic Mönchengladbach season, with his accomplice and compatriot Alassane Pléa, suspended Saturday against Bayern.

For his debut in the Bundesliga, the player trained at Sochaux then passed by Guingamp is one of the revelations of the season, with ten goals and eight assists. Almost as much as Pléa, his 27-year-old elder (10 goals and 10 assists), more experienced and retained once in the France A team, in 2018.

- "Cup Final" -

Together, they helped lift the Rhineland club to first place in the standings for almost two months this fall. And since then, Mönchengladbach has been hanging onto the leading square, a passport to the Champions League.

On the eve of the shock against Bayern and four days to go, Borussia is fourth with 56 points, tied with Leverkusen, who moves to Schalke on Sunday (6:00 p.m. / 4:00 p.m. GMT).

Thuram will discover the Allianz Arena in Munich, but behind closed doors, since the sanitary protocol against the Covid-19 is still in force until the end of the season.

A heartbreaker for this boy who loves above all to share his enthusiasm with the fans, and who even chose Germany a little because of this: "When you return to the stadium, at home and away, every weekend it feels like we are playing a Cup final, "he said in December. Before the coronavirus silenced football.

© 2020 AFP