Disabled footballer Romain Abellan shares his experience

Les élèves du collège avec Romain Abellan

Les élèves du collège Pic la Salle entourent Romain Abellan.

The Béziers football champion for amputees gave a conference in front of the children.

Tuesday May 28, students from Pic La Salle college were able to meet a disabled athlete, Romain Abellan. "It’s part of a year-long project around the Olympic Games, explains Natacha Piat, French teacher. We organized two meetings with high-level athletes for the sixth grade classes."

The first was with Océane Cassignol, the swimming champion."She was a former student of the Pic, she agreed to come back. Then, we wanted to meet Romain Abellan, so that he could tell them about his journey in disabled sports. The Béziers amputee football champion gave a short conference in front of the children . He told them how, while he was playing semi-pro football in Nîmes, his left leg was eaten away by a nasty bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus.

After a medical obstacle course, he decided on amputation himself. Which was, in the end, perhaps the only way for him to return to the stadium pitch. "I had known this sport before my amputation. I was almost in a hurry to lose my leg to go play, he jokes.

"In amputee football, you remove your prosthesis to play on crutches. All the support is done on the latter and we use the good leg to direct the ball. Some champions can dash up to 15 km/hour."

< p>After his operation, he contacted the captain of the French team, participated in training courses, and, in 2022, played in the World Cup. He organized a France-Spain friendly match at the Stade de la Méditerranée last year and currently plays for two clubs, one in Italy, the other in Poland.

"Being a high-level athlete gives you the mental strength to overcome challenges", comments France Rouvière-Fabre, PE teacher. It is this life lesson that she and her colleagues wanted to pass on to their students through this meeting. The sixth graders will also be required to test their athletic mentality in June, during which the college will organize a week of Olympics.

Correspondent Midi Libre: 06 46 32 13 96.

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