Frederic Michalak what a wonderful read

There was something quintessentially French about Frederic Michalak’s description of his recent departure from the rugby club he had played for since he was seven and his arrival in his new home, Durban.
“It is the end of a love affair, the heart breaks, but a new affair begins,” he said of his break from his beloved Toulouse. “Durban was kind to me when I came here in 2008 (for a sabbatical from Toulouse) and I did a lot of growing up here, so when the (recent) phone call came from the Sharks it felt right to return and make a home here – he has signed for the Sharks for 15 months but says he could well voluntarily stay longer.
The Mercury’s interview with the French icon is in very different circumstances to an interview in 2008. Michalak had brought with him (a mostly uninvited) entourage that we would normally associate with a pop star. Two French TV crews and three newspapers were in his shadow, he was accompanied for the first fortnight of his stay by his agent, who he described as his “sister” but was no blood relation, and he conducted all interviews with local media through a translator (it was handy indeed that one of the secretaries at the Sharks is a French-speaking Swiss).
Leading French Sports paper l’Equipe assigned a reporter and photographer to cover the then 25-year-old’s entire three-month Super 12 visit.
Three years later he is blissfully unencumbered, the defences against the media that he had constructed are down and he proves to be a humble soul – disarming, ingenuous, unfailingly polite. And his dramatically improved English resonates with that melodic French accent that English-speakers find so charming.
Much of that is due to a delightful, romantic legacy to his 2008 visit. One of his better friends at the time was teammate Waylon Murray, who introduced him to the cousin of a girl he was dating at the time. Her name was Cindy and she was visiting relations in Durban (her family had emigrated to Australia when she was eight months old).
“Later that season the Sharks’ Super 12 tour went to Sydney and we spent time together …” he says. “She came to stay with me when I returned to Toulouse. She has obviously helped me with English and she is speaking good French.” They were married in December.
Cindy is finishing a contract at a bank in London and will join her husband next month.
“She is really looking forward to living in the place of her birth. We have been ‘gypsies’ for a while (Toulouse, London and now Durban), so we are looking forward to settling down here.”
The dimming media attention for Michalak in France has as much to do with the flyhalf currently being out of favour with the French selectors (he has played 55 Test matches for his country) as it is do with his lifestyle assuming more sedate proportions.
After making his debut for France as a handsome 19-year-old he quickly became a phenomenon off the field. He posed nude for Citizen K (a luxury fashion magazine) and Dieux du Stade (The Stadium Gods – a highly popular annual calendar produced by French club Stade Français).
In Europe, a poll undertaken by leading woman’s magazines had him as the second most desirable sportsman after David Beckham. To his amusement he became a major Gay icon. He was soon earning a fortune advertising everything from luxury watches to condoms.
His early 20s were spent in an unrelenting media glare.
“A lot has happened. All the calendars, the advertisements, the posters … you try things, you make mistakes but I regret none of it because they were experiences and part of growing up,” he reflects. “When you are 20, 21 you do things once for the experiment – it is just much harder when you do your growing up in the spotlight.
“What happens is that you do something once and the media seizes on it and they say that is who you are. For instance, you go to a nightclub once and suddenly that is all you do.”
There was one episode in particular that the media dined out on. Michalak and his childhood friend Clement Poitrenaud were youthful newcomers in the French national squad and at one lunch session they were teasing the captain, Fabian Pelous, by tossing bits of bread at him.
He was not impressed and when they continued after he asked them to stop, Michalak suddenly found a fork embedded in his hand.
“It is a true story. We were being childish. I can laugh now, but it hurt. The fork just stayed there stuck in my hand!”
It is because he has often suffered at the hands of adults in the media that he loves children, and plans on having many of them.
“I like the innocence of kids. They don’t have agendas, they don’t want something from you,” he says.
He did not have the easiest childhood, himself. He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the industrial side of Toulouse. One of four children, his parents had a messy divorce and he lived with his bricklayer dad, with “no rules” in the house, so he pretty much did as he pleased. Rugby, though, gave him direction and discipline.
Michalak clearly is an emotional and passionate person. His body is covered with tattoos, each with a special significance.
“My friend JP Pietersen tells me that I look like a newspaper! But these are reminders to me of special things in my life.”
For instance, an Arabic script down his left shoulder is in remembrance of a friend who died in 2003.
Another symbolises his friendship with the same group of mates he grew up with.
Michalak says his colourful rugby career parallels his life.
“You win trophies, you lose finals, there is ecstasy and despair. Off the field it is the same …”
by Mike Greenaway