Didier Roustan

Didier Roustan was born in Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa (now Republic of the Congo). His mother is from Martinique, and worked for Agence France-Presse.[1] Roustan grew up in Cannes, France.[2]

Roustan played youth football for AS Cannes, but was suspended at the age of 17 after an altercation with a trainer.[1] At the age of 18, Roustan joined TF1 for an internship. He was chosen for the role by Georges de Caunes.[1][3] His internship was for three months, but Roustan stayed at TF1 for 13 and a half years.[1] At the age of 21, he featured on TF1 football programme Téléfoot.[1] In 1979, Roustan commentated on a match between France and Sweden, making him the youngest Frenchman to commentate on a France senior team match.[3] Roustan was the temporary presenter of Téléfoot in June 1984, before being replaced by Thierry Roland.[4] Roustan is remembered for his commentary at UEFA Euro 1984, which was won by France.[3]

In 1989, Roustan joined Canal+,[1] where he worked on the 52-minute programme Mag Max.[5] Roustan left TF1 in 1989 after a disagreement with TF1 shareholder and Olympique de Marseille president Bernard Tapie about TF1's coverage of Marseille matches.[6][7] After deciding to go travelling for three years,[6] Roustan later joined France 2 in 1993.[1] He worked on a France 2 sports betting programme with Basile Boli, Emmanuel Petit and Louise Ekland.[8] From 2004 to 2006, Roustan worked as a commentator for Foot!, TV5Monde's football programme. He commentated on Ligue 1, UEFA Champions League, and French national football matches.[9] Roustan also worked as a radio commentator for RTL for many years, before leaving the station in 2019.[10] He now works for L'Équipe.[11] Roustan said that fellow sports journalist Jean Raynal was his inspiration.[12] Roustan is nicknamed Che Guevara, as he is sceptical of the role of money in football.[11]

Aside from commentating and presenting, Roustan set up a monthly football magazine called United Colours of Football in 1993.[5] In 1995, he helped to set up International Association of Professional Footballers, the first world union of footballers, working alongside Diego Maradona and Eric Cantona.[3][7] Roustan suggested to Cantona and Maradona that each of them should contribute $7,000 to support the new union,[13] and the union started with 48 members including Cantona, Maradona, and Gianluca Vialli.[1] In 1997, Roustan organised an International Association of Professional Footballers charity match between Europe and Rest of the World. The match featured Cantona, Maradona, René Higuita, Gus Poyet, Rubén Sosa, and Giovane Élber.[14] The union ended in 1998, in part due to the recreation of FIFPro.[1] Roustan also created the Foot Citoyen social project, which was supported by Arsène Wenger. Some charity events for Foot Citoyen were attended by Zinedine Zidane.[2][15] Roustan also runs a blog and weekly podcast called Roustan Foot.[11]

In 2015, Roustan was awarded a Prix de la Carriere (lifetime achievement award) by the Association des écrivains sportifs.[16]