Guest of Europe 1 on Friday, singer Cali told of his passion for rugby, a sport whose values ​​have served him throughout his career.

However, the artist believes that he could not have made a career in this discipline, because of his love for music and a youthful runaway which changed his outlook on life.

INTERVIEW

He was born in Perpignan, a city of rugby, and the sport has never really left him.

Guest of Europe 1 on Friday, singer Cali told of his passion for the oval balloon that has inhabited him since his childhood.

In the village where he grew up, in Vernet-les-Bains in the Pyrénées-Orientales, he says, "girls and boys played rugby" and gathered to practice this sport "like a family".

Very quickly, the left-hander at ease at the opening half position, his "favorite" place on the field, joined Usap, the Perpignan club, and played for the selection of Roussillon with Marc Lièvremont, who would later become coach of the XV of France.

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"I ran away in love"

Still, Cali "doesn't think" he could have made a career in rugby.

"It takes something like a fierce will to sacrifice a lot of years" for this sport, he justifies himself at the microphone of Europe 1. "Me, I had the music deep inside me."

And another event has come to disrupt young Cali's attachment to rugby.

"I ran away in love at the age of 16 and when I came back, I still had this passion for rugby, but I was less bitten," he recalls.

"In any case, that was not the absolute goal. I wanted to make music afterwards."

Difficult however to forget his first love for the oval for the singer.

He recalls that in his title "All that will never come back", he "speaks of Golden Helmet", the nickname of the former French rugby player Jean-Pierre Rives, and of Roger Couderc and his sidekick "Bala" (Pierre Albaladejo) who commented on the matches at the time.

"I never missed a Five Nations game and their voices still rock me," Cali said.

And to conclude: "Me, I wish all the parents to make taste this sport to their children because it is the sacrifice, the gift of oneself ... We hurt ourselves so that the friend next door will have less pain. I learned all this in rugby and it served me all my life. "