Arnaud likes sports. It’s his job. He teaches it at the Paul Duez high school and takes care of the sports section of swimming. Swimming, cycling,but above all football“, these are his things. Last Sunday, around 20:30, his smartphone – in very bad condition – did not stop vibrating. Family, friends and many students had just seen their “Nono” on TV.
On this first evening of the year, football France, probably still a little flagada after New Year’s Eve, had its eyes on the poster among the PSGleader of the Ligue 1 championship, and his surprising second place lensois. The Cambrésien Arnaud, was in the spans of the Félix-Bollaert stadium. Her long curly hair, her pink sunglasses on her nose, her Blood and Gold jersey on her back, and her “Thank You Kylian” sign at arm’s length. As the 22 players were about to enter the field, and after Kylian Mbappé, top scorer at the World Cup in Qatar, had already received a standing ovation from the Bollaert-Delelis crowd, Arnaud appeared on the screen, spotted by the Prime Video cameramen, the broadcaster of this summit meeting.
41,000 likes on the PSG Community page
The buzz was on. The image made the rounds on social media. And not only at the level of the “Lensosphere” or among the knowledge of the master Cambrésien. Page “PSG community” for example, which brought back the image of “Nono” with his “Thank you Kylian” sign attached to the comment “Respect for the Lensois public“, received 41,000 likes and had more than 1,000 comments and shares. And yet, as often, Arnaud didn’t look for it. “I had this idea on Christmas Eve, He explains. Also, I made my mark with gift wrapping. I shouldn’t have attended this game. A Cambresian friend managed to get me two places late. I told myself that the occasion was too tempting to thank Mbappé who made us vibrate during this World Cup. I didn’t expect him to come back so quickly and play this game since 1and January in Lens. He wanted to quickly resume the competition in order to forget, and this sign put a balm in my heart when I was unable to recover even from the defeat against Argentina.”
“I had lost my sign in a bar”
And for the little anecdote, this famous sign should never have ended up at the Bollaert stadium on Sunday. “The pre-match in Lens was very festive, says Arnaud with a small smile. So much so that I had forgotten and lost my sign in a bar. But there is a young Cambrésien, a Racing fan, who had seen a waitress pick it up and throw it in the trash. Luckily he told me, I was annoyed and was about to leave for the stadium without my sign. When I picked it up, a friend told me “you’ll see, you’ll be on TV!” Bingo!
Lens-PSG in 1981 with his father
Better yet, at halftime, at the time of the Crowns, the Pierre Bachelet song sung by the Lensois audience, Arnaud reappeared on the screen with his signature “Merci Kylian”. “I’m happy, he confides, because it gives a good image of football and my club. I’ve been a fan since I was 9 years old. I went to Lens-PSG in 1981 with my father.” When RC Lens won the French champions title in 1998, Arnaud found himself on the front page of The observer, perched on a lamppost on the Place de Cambrai. 20 years later, during France-Belgium at the 2018 World Cup, a kidnapping notice was published in our columns after Paul Duez’s teacher had his tricolor hat stolen from the L’Excentric cafe.of inestimable sentimental value because I wore it during the Azzurri world title in 1998.”
The star of the Tour de France
And Arnaud is not only the favorite of the cameras as a football fan. We saw him galloping through the fields, all dressed in blue, white, red, taken from the Tour de France helicopter in the summer of 2022 during a stage in Calais-Boulogne-sur-Mer; and also in the same tricolor suit and a Blood and Gold flag as the peloton traverses Mont Ventoux in 2021.Sharing moments of happiness and emotions is my vision of sport and my philosophy of life.“, concludes our supporter of Cambrai.
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A tweet from Mbappé?
Arnaud admits it. Given the welcome Kylian Mbappé received at the Bollaert-Delelis stadium in Lens on Sunday evening, he wished he’d “a little tweetThanksgiving from Bondy’s son. “I think it really warmed his heart in this moment as he admits he was having a hard time digesting the defeat in the World Cup final.” But Kylian Mbappé has very controlled communication and flew the next day to the United States where he was applauded by the NBA basketball crowd, this time.
