Speaking in a special programme on Canal +, Franck Ribéry discussed the difficulties he encountered with the scar that disfigured him during a car accident in his hometown of Boulogne-sur-Mer. His face required almost 100 stitches.
“This gave me my character, and my strength too. When you are young, disfigured like that, it is not easy. You look at people, your critics, my family fought a lot for that, at people who criticised me. Like: “Look at his face, look at how ugly he is, what is this scar.” Wherever I went, people would look at me. Not because I was good looking, not because I was called Franck, not because I was good at football, but because I had a scar. That was hard… When you were in your own part of town things were different because everyone knew everyone, so.”
“But when you went to school, you would meet other people, parents, they would look at me and speak amongst themselves. You feel it. People are laughing at you. When it is parents doing it, it is mean. When you are young, you suffer. But when I was young and people made fun of me, I never went into a corner and cried. Never.”