On December 8, 2004, Sylvain Idangar scored his only professional goal with OL against Sparta Prague.

-

MARTIN BUREAU / AFP

  • At 20, Sylvain Idangar was seen as a great hope for OL, especially after his Champions League goal against Sparta Prague in December 2004.

  • "Sly" then never had a chance with the professional group again.

    After a hardly conclusive loan in Valenciennes (Ligue 2), he opted for a life of "globetrotter".

  • Back in Lyon, this former left winger has just published his autobiography, with the symbolic title of

    The Value of Failure

    .

From a goal in the Champions League in 2004 with OL to a last professional experience in Thailand seven years later, Sylvain Idangar knows

The Value of Failure

.

This left winger living again in Lyon thus entitles his autobiography, which has just been released in self-publishing.

"One day, I was telling football anecdotes to a friend and he suggested that I write a book so that my story could be used by others," explains the 36-year-old Franco-Chadian.

The idea gained ground because there are few books where a player gives himself so much to explain his career choices.

"

During 288 pages, it retraces his journey, since his arrival at the age of 15 at the Plaine des jeux de Gerland, from the Paris region.

Neo-professional gradually integrating the group of Paul Le Guen, Sylvain Idangar will know his hour of glory (or rather his 25 minutes) in Lyon, one evening of Festival of Lights, December 8, 2004. 20 years and the prospect of 'A first professional appearance at Gerland, for a Champions League group match without pressure against Sparta Prague,

what else

 ?

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"I wouldn't trade my trips for a pro career in France"

“It was the perfect evening,” he smiles.

I was prepared for what we score quickly to come into play. I said to myself: '' There is no need to be shy, the little you are going to give me, you will see.

The 40,000 spectators at Gerland, that's not a problem at all. ''

"Surprise striker during a European demonstration (5-0), and new symbol of the training center of an OL investigating the titles," Sly "has everything to succeed.

Except that four days later, he is "back in his daily life" by finding the reserve team and the CFA.

"Mentally broken" a month later, after seeing a certain Karim Benzema pass him in front, at 17, as 16th man in a Ligue 1 match at Sochaux, he deplores "the lack of dialogue" of his coach with young people players.

Another story then begins.

“A lot of people still wonder why I didn't play again after this Champions League goal, and why I became a globetrotter after Lyon.

They saw my career path as a failure.

At the time, I also saw it like that, but looking back, I understood that it was not a failure.

»Because Sylvain Idangar is delighted with his five years of« globetrotter ».

I had hardships to go through and humanly, I found myself through travel.

Discovering other cultures is the greatest wealth that could happen to me in my life.

I wouldn't trade that for money and a pro career in France.

"

"Even the Thai championship was super technical"

Because French football has never smiled on him, like his one-year loan to Valenciennes in 2005-2006 (five appearances in the league), despite a league title 2 with Antoine Kombouaré.

“When you go from the big OL at the time to a club like VA in L2, there is a world of difference, he remembers.

You get balloons thrown in the air anyhow, you have to put on the heat blue.

This football made me feel a little disgusted.

"

🎂🎉 The best❤ @ Juninhope08 pic.twitter.com/kVfPf9rHyI

- Sylvain Idangar (@ sly91z) January 30, 2019

“Sly” is on the move at the end of his three-year professional lease at OL.

So, from the age of 23, it's time for Saudi Arabia, Algeria, the Portuguese D2 and the improbable Bangkok Glass FC to conclude, each time for a single season.

“I felt that I was no longer popular in France, and I wanted to move abroad,” he explains.

And beware, it is not only in Europe that we know how to play ball.

Setif was a great team in Algeria.

Even the Thai championship was super technical, and with over 25,000 spectators at the stadium.

".

"This goal against Prague, I was told from everywhere"

A

road-trip

interspersed with a single half-season at SO Cassis Carnoux (National) in 2009, “to live in a shared apartment with Hatem [Ben Arfa]”, his long-time friend, then at OM.

"Then I had to take back my backpack", slips the one who will switch to the amateur world in 2012, by linking four clubs in the Lyon region.

To make his story even more funky, he adds an international cape to his CV thanks to a Malawi-Chad (2-0) in May 2014, during qualifying for CAN 2015.

In February 2013, we find Sylvain Idangar in the jersey of Vénissieux, for a knockout stage of the Coupe de France lost after extra time against Nancy (0-2).

- PHILIPPE MERLE / AFP

So many adventures that the current coach of U14 attackers from FC Vénissieux (Rhône) knows owe OL.

“Even more than the fact of being trained in Lyon, it was my goal in the Champions League that marked people and opened doors for me, he notes.

I have been told about this one everywhere.

Without this bright one-two with Pierre-Alain Frau, there would probably be no

value of failure

today.

Find "The Value of Failure" by Sylvain Idangar, self-published on Amazon here

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