A Lille club with a big heart.
As Kilkenny football teams have found out over the years, it can be tough to survive when the locals aren’t interested in the game you’re playing.
Apologies to the dedicated football folk in the Marble County, the analogy was merely to illustrate the difficulties faced by Lille Football Gaelique, a club located in the northeast corner of France, far removed from the majority of GAA clubs in the country.
Despite the challenges faced in a region where GAA remains a mystery to most and playing a match requires a fair bit of travelling, Lille has been in existence for three years now thanks to a positive attitude and the healthy team spirit within their ranks.
Clip via Lille Gaels
One of their 16 members, Emmanuel (Manu), got in touch recently to tell us a bit more about the club and of his secret (not so secret now!) plan to seduce local rugby players and turn them into Gaelic Footballers.
Focus on Lille Football Gaélique
Club: Lille Football Gaélique
Year established: 2013
Number of members: 16
Biggest rivals: Naives (but they also are our BFFs). And now, Azur Gaels because of the extreme distance between us!
Biggest representation from a club/county in Ireland: Offaly and Kildare, one from each.
Most famous ever member: Since joining Toulouse, our former player David has since won a Championship medal and was elected MVP in the last tournament.
As for our current players, Titouan can be seen with his band (De Laatste Drop) in almost every traditional carnival (The Carnaval de Dunkerque), so, in a way, he’s our local celebrity.
Also, Manu is in a band (Silent Elephant) that plays gigs around Lille.
Most memorable moment in the club’s history: A great trip to Niort (nine hour drive), with a nice night out before the tournament and a few wins during said tournament.
Most eye-catching scoreline in the club’s history: A 3-3 – 0-7 win in our first game, a friendly against Naives, who were playing their first ever game as well.
Player who makes the longest commute to training: Titouan comes from Paris for the Thursday session, so that’s a little more than 200 kilometres.
He sometimes comes from Hazebrouck, which is more than a 30 minute drive away.
Most dedicated club person: The two founders – Stephane and Thomas – and Manu is also heavily involved.
Also Garrett, although he doesn’t have much time nowadays, he was part of the very, very few that were there in the early days, when we were training with five people in the lashing rain and freezing hail.
Player who could have made it big if love/career/drink didn’t get in the way: Greg, but as a good Lille man, he cannot refuse a good meal and the liquor that goes with it. So say all of us.
Biggest character: Thomas, our Presi-Coach-Captain, is always pushing us to go the extra mile, but never agrees with the ref.
Loudest in the dressing room: That has to be Alex when he teases Mrso!
Number of romances that started in the GAA club (feel free to name names): There was a beautiful bromance between Manu & François, but François left to live in Dublin, leaving Manu heartbroken.
Valère and Titouan are quite a cute couple as well.
Duck to water award – Best new player who had never played GAA before: Greg picked up the game very quickly and scored some crucial points for us in Niort.
Most annoying person in the club WhatsApp group: Manu, who won’t ever stop with his doodles.
Best story involving a club member that’s fit for print: Ouch, so many of those!
Well there must be one with Mrso. He once had to play with his casual shoes because he forgot his football boots at a tournament.
Danny, meanwhile, missed our last tournament because he lost his papers while back home in Ireland so he couldn’t get the plane back!
If you’re a member of a GAA club abroad and would like to be featured on the site, feel free to send a mail to conor.heneghan@JOE.ie or find us on Facebook or Twitter.
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