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Via La Premiere, Mario Darlingthe former defender of these Girondins of Bordeaux, was invited to speak on the term “Black Guard”, which he formed with the late Jean-Pierre Adams.
“Yes, I didn’t mind that term. Now, it’s prescribed, you hardly have to say it anymore… With Jean-Pierre, we didn’t play many games in the French team, but the Black Guard thing happened in ’74. We will play against Poland who finished third in the World Cup in ‘ 74, they had a terrific team at the time. After this match, won 2-1, the journalists asked the coach questions and at one point ‘do you know why we won tonight? Because tonight I found my Darkguard. It was me and Jean-Pierre Adams. He stuck with us.”
Have you been a victim of racism during your career?
“It happened to me once (laughs). We played in Angoulême with Marseille, we won 3-0 and at that time I was playing stopper. I took the center forward in marking. The trainer told me ‘if he goes to the bathroom, you follow him’. And that’s what I did. At a certain moment he stops, looks at me and says ‘do you know you’re tanned?’. And I laughed: ‘you don’t know, my mother always told me’. And he stopped. He was in 72-73. I met this player three years later during the 75-76 season. We had just won the Coupe de France with Marseille, and the last game was in Avignon, he had changed teams. It was the only time I was nearly kicked out of camp for losing my temper. On open play I have my stopper who gets to the ball first and puts it in for a corner. The other comes from behind and knocks him down. Avignon were last and were behind by 20 points, it was a game that didn’t interest us, but it had to be played because it was the last game of the championship. Then on this action I say to my goalkeeper, ‘forget it, he’s an asshole, he’ll never understand anything’. I turn my back on him, I see a punch go by and I can’t help myself (header, ed). The referee, it was his first professional game, shows the red card… But behind him, an OM player stole his card. The card passes from hand to hand and my goalkeeper tells me ‘don’t move, he has nothing left’. I turn around and ask the referee trembling: ‘What am I doing?’. Trembling he puts his hand in his pocket, he has only one yellow card left… Then he gives me a yellow card and I get a two-match ban for the first season. So I’ve never had a red card in my entire career. I knew how to keep my feet on the ground and I respected my opponents. If I managed to make this career … It’s the only time, but when I saw that it was his face … ».
Transcription Girondins4Ever
