David Ginola

You (Parents) need to take away the pressure, because kids don’t understand pressure.

My experience as a father, been following my kid when playing for a football club in France every game on the weekend, I had parents coming to me saying “What can I do with my kid, everybody saying he’s quite good?”. I (David Ginola) asked who is her kid, so you think he’s good there’s millions of them in the world, millions. So, just stay calm. Because the advice I’d give these days isn’t to the kids it’s for the parents.

Because parents are so excited by the fact that their child will probably become a professional football player, they are more excited than the kid. To put the kid under pressure, because the father, it seems to be that the father is playing rather than the kid. The way they shout from the side of the pitch, NO this is WRONG. So no advice for the kids, advice for the parents stay calm and keep your feet on the floor, whatever people tell you about your kid “He’s fantastic”. I saw so many friends of mine, with wrong ideas and illusion “One day I’ll be there” then they had an injury and the illusion disappears. Suddenly you don’t know what to do anymore.

David Ginola