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Before this year’s season, the transfer many had been waiting for was finally confirmed. Lucas Hernández was ready for PSG on a five-year contract.
The transfer from Bayern Munich is said to have cost the French around NOK 588 million.
IMPOSE: PSGs Lucas Hernandez. Photo: Franck Fife
– Lucas was one of the big PSG signings last summer. He has a warrior mentality and is a “fighter” on the pitch. Coach Luis Enrique sees him as an important player, says Dimitri Karam, president of PSG Fan Club Norway.
– He is well-liked among the French people for his warlike attitude and the way he contributed to France becoming world champions in 2018, says Guillaume Truillet, journalist on the TV channel beIN SPORTS.
Hernández was born in Marseille, where his father Jean-François Hernández played for the city’s top team.
Lucas’ one-year-younger younger brother, AC Milan player Théo, is also among the world‘s best defenders. Dad Jean-François must have done something right in his sons’ football upbringing.
– Haven’t seen him in 12 years
The choices the father made outside the football pitch when the children were small have, however, been debated.
The former Marseille player disappeared without a trace 20 years ago, when Lucas and Théo were seven and eight years old.
In 2018, the same year that Lucas became world champion with France, he spoke to the Spanish major newspaper Marca about the situation:
– We haven’t heard from our father for 12-13 years, not even after we won the WC. Now that I am a father myself, I am more aware of what he has done and that he has failed in his role as a father. I can’t imagine giving up my own son. I would never do that.
The following year, Lucas Hernández told M6 that he did not know if his father was “dead or alive”.
The French newspaper L’Equipe managed to track down Jean-François a few years ago after contacting friends and family.
Eventually they found out he was in Thailand. Here he and his brother had bought up land to build a house and run a bakery on the island of Koh Samui.
In 2020, he will have returned to France. Jean-François has not commented on the matter, but several of his comrades have.
They believed that it was not Jean-François who abandoned his sons 20 years ago, but that his ex-girlfriend and the brothers’ mother, Laurence Py, prevented him from seeing them.
Jean-François’ eldest daughter, Lauris, has described Laurence as a “cruel person”. People close to Jean-François have stated that he had to pay to see his sons.
Daughter Lauris stated that Jean-François watches all the French international matches on TV and that he “watches the matches alone, because he cries from the first to the last minute”.
Three years ago, Lucas and Theo became the first pair of brothers to start together for France since 1932.
The brothers’ mother Laurence has not commented on the matter either.
BROTHERS: Lucas and Theo Hernandez. Photo: Franck Fife
In a rare interview with Marca seven years ago, she could say that she was proud of both Lucas and Théo, without there being any talk of the relationship with Jean-François.
– There was some writing here in France about the family situation when Théo made his debut in the national team three years ago, but otherwise it has been quiet. This matter is not talked about in France anymore, says Guillaume Truillet from beIN SPORTS.
– Missed it
However, there is a lot of talk about tonight’s semi-final between PSG and Borussia Dortmund.
– What I have liked this season, which we have missed in previous years, is that PSG play as a team. This season it is the team that has come into focus, says PSG Fan Club Norway president Dimitri Karam.
PSG has already won league gold and the French Super Cup. Now they are chasing their first Champions League gold in today’s format, the format that saw the light of day in 1992.
Four years ago there was a final defeat against Bayern Munich.
This is PSG’s fourth semi-final appearance. They knocked out RB Leipzig in 2020, while there were losses to AC Milan and Manchester City on the other two occasions.
– PSG have a slight advantage against Dortmund, since the return match is played at home in Paris at the Parc des Princes, Dimitri Karam believes.
He believes the winning recipe for the French is clear:
– Gianluigi Donnarumma should have a good game in goal. Marqiuinhos will lead the defense. Vitinha must be the general in midfield. And then we need Kylian Mbappé at his best at the front of the field.
– In addition, we have great offensive power in Ousmane Dembélé, Randal Kolo Muani, Bradley Barcola, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, says Karam.
Lucas Hernández is also expected to play an important role for the French. But it wasn’t just easy for the supporters to welcome him to the club last summer.
– As he comes from Marseille, PSG’s rival historically, he had to convince them that he was going to give everything for the club. And he has done that, says Guillaume Truillet.
– It was difficult for us supporters to open up to Lucas Hernández, considering his Marseille background. But the performances on the pitch and the professionalism on and off the pitch have won the hearts of the fans, says Karam.
Even more hearts will be won if Lucas Hernández and PSG end up with a historic Champions League gold this season.
The first obstacle is tonight, where the match in the match could soon be against Julian Ryerson from Lyngdal on one of the opposite slopes.