“It was very strong” … Visually impaired, Nathan saw the match without eyes

The first time he went to Roazhon Park, the Stade Rennais den was still called the Stade de la Route de Lorient. It was 2013 and Nathan was only seven years old. His memory? “I didn’t see the players, I was placed much too high”. The boy he was never imagined his next game at the stadium would be in total blur. On Sunday, the 14-year-old went to Roazhon Park with his sister and his mother and some 25,000 other spectators to watch the match between Stade Rennais and Stade de Reims. A Superman cap on his head to gather his fragile hair and dark glasses to protect his eyes which hardly see any more.

Nathan was diagnosed with leukemia when he was only 11 months old and had to undergo two transplants and chemotherapy. Heavy treatments essential to continue living but which condemned his sight. In 2015, he saw his eyes almost stop working. But this lively young boy intends to continue living as “normally” as possible. “It is not because I am visually impaired that I cannot come and watch a football match,” Nathan explained to us before the meeting.

Stretched out by the adventure that awaited him, the teenager worried about the “noise” of the stadium before entering the stands. He who no longer has the sight has naturally developed his other senses.

“If I’m not too far from the field, I’ll be able to perceive things. But I will hear everything, listen to everything ”.

Chance has done things well. The places won by his mother have reserved a seat for him in the third row, next to his little sister Lali. The one who donated her bone marrow in 2008 to save her brother. A little higher, Sabrina, the mother, takes advantage of the moment. “He’s a lot more sensitive to hearing so I didn’t know if he would like it. But it was important to him to come. He is visually impaired but he is like everyone else, he has the right to share good times ”.

????B.Génésio: “I am very very disappointed, I am very ashamed of our audience, who had once again come in numbers, knowing that there is another game on Thursday. I know the sacrifice that that. may mean paying twice to come and see two home games. “

– News SRFC (@ActuSRFC_) September 12, 2021

During ninety minutes when the Stade Rennais will not have really shone, Nathan vibrated. Letting himself be carried away by the clamors of the stadium to understand what was happening. “The atmosphere was great. We screamed, we clapped our hands, it was great. To know if it was a good or a bad deed for Rennes, I listened to the public. I heard them ohhh where the houuu “. On the goal of Serhou Guirassy, ​​the teenager jumped. But he also blocked his ears because “it was very strong”. He didn’t really understand why the Rennes striker’s goal was canceled. It must be said that the offside was tied for a few centimeters, on the other side of the field.

“I really want to go back”

Stade Rennais will finally be beaten 2-0 by a more dashing Stade de Reims. Never in the game, Bruno Genesio’s men have delivered one of their worst performances for a long time. But that, Nathan doesn’t care. “They will do better next time, it’s not so serious”, relativizes the young man. His worst memory of that day is the work of a spectator sitting behind him. “He spent his time bitching, he commented on the whole game, he criticized everyone, I was fed up,” says Nathan. At the time of finding the education and rehabilitation center for the blind and visually impaired in Plénée-Jugon where he has been in school for a year, the teenager has only one idea in mind. “I really want to go back. I have already asked mom ”. His agenda will not allow him to do so before October and the reception of a certain PSG. The dream poster.