Former
France and
Manchester United defender on dressing up as a panda to combat
racism and his admiration for Alex Ferguson
“Sometimes I don’t want to talk about all these things because, inside, I’m crying,” Patrice Evra says as we sit on his favourite bench in
London. The former Manchester United defender shields his eyes on the hottest day of the summer as we look over the Thames in a discreet corner of Battersea. Evra has led me to his secret bench because we can talk here for more than two hours about his complex life.
Evra is well-known for his
Instagram videos in which he shouts “I love this game” while singing along to Marvin Gaye, with or without
Paul Pogba, or wearing a Panda costume as his gleeful way of undercutting racism. “I want to spread that positive message,” he says while acknowledging his own “dark energy”. After being racially abused he kicked one of his club’s fans at Marseille in 2017. Evra was also insulted in racial terms by Luis Suárez in 2011. He played in five
Champions League finals and was one of Alex Ferguson’s favourite players in five Premier League-winning campaigns.