Biterrois Romain Abellan has signed with Olympique de Marseille in the new amputee football section

A travers le foot amputé, Romain Abellan vit sa passion du ballon rond, à fond.

Portrait. His passion for football allowed the Béziers native Romain Abellan to turn his disability into a strength. Meeting with a man determined to stay standing.

Their faces were displayed on the big screen at the Vélodrome stadium last Sunday, January 19, welcomed by the president Pablo Longoria, the institutional and sports advisor, Fabrizio Ravanelli and the director of football, Mehdi Benatia, for a training session under the colors of OM. The first Ligue 1 club to bring an amputated football section into a four-team national championship with Paris FC, Nantes and Annecy.
Romain Abellan and his teammates from the South experienced this moment like a childhood dream. “It's magnificent! Already when you've been a fan of OM since you were young and you end up wearing the jersey with your name on the back, I have a teammate who held back tears, it was a dream for him! And then when a professional club like Marseille takes us under its wing, it brings us visibility and recognition. They make us even more athletic than we were!”, adds the Béziers native who could have tried a professional career more seriously! “I was semi-pro at 17 but I wasn't mature enough to live this dream of being a professional footballer. I do it now.”

“I met this sport even before the amputation”

It was finally when his life changed in a hospital corridor three years ago that he found the strength to live football to the fullest. Suffering from golden staphylococcus, he had his left leg amputated in 2021 before leaving the hospital on March 10, 2022 and wearing the national jersey on March 18. “I had prepared all of this. I searched with the keywords, sport, football, disability, and I came across this sport even before the amputation. I went to play a match with Marseille players before the amputation. I was determined. I knew there was a World Cup in October and it's stupid, but I was in a hurry to lose my leg to give myself this goal of being there”.

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Romain Abellan signed with OM, the first Ligue 1 club to develop an amputee football section. Photo Credit: OM
That's what keeps him going. In three years, he's played in a World Cup, the Nations League, and the Champions League. “And then I signed with OM. I've developed my business (carpentry in Villeneuve-lès-Béziers). All these professional, personal, and sporting goals mean that I never stop. Amputee football has been my therapy. That's why I haven't sunk, become depressed, and why I've accepted myself by assuming my disability” . With a word that has become his credo: stand up.
“It's a new life, I often say”, that he “devours“, even more than the old one. Like a challenge, this need to be busy, to not stop.
On the sporting level alone, he is a coach and has a dual license to play in France and Italy; in the national team (which should play in the Nations League in Georgia this summer).

A new life… of challenges

The power of sport for the acceptance of disability. “There is a sport for everyone. 90% of the time, you can find a way to express yourself, tetra, para, trisomy…, adds Romain. Able-bodied or disabled, when you're not feeling well and you're going to go hit a punching bag, do some weight training, a ball, go jogging. Sport helps you let off steam. I've always done it, and inclusive sport is the best”.

It's necessary to have a referent

You still have to be filled with unwavering determination, or almost, to get back up in the face of the injustice of an illness or an accident. “I am lucky to have a strong and determined character to give myself goals. I am well surrounded, family, golden friends, but I have always made my decisions alone. Football was my whole life, so it is true that I absolutely had to find something in relation to that. Others will go towards archery, wheelchair rugby… What is necessary is to have a referent to tell yourself this. In all hospitals, there should be this person who pulls you and “guides” you. If you stay alone with your disability, it's over. What helped me was to have quickly met people like me, who assume themselves, accept themselves”.
On Instagram, Romain Abellan had thus approached the captain of the national amputee football team, Jérôme Raffetto, former Ligue 2 player, who had invited him to watch his first match in Marseille, before the amputation, and with whom he now shares the OM jersey.

“If you mope around, you're nobody”

A loop that is not necessarily complete but well tied up as he willingly talks about his journey, his other life. He takes part in conferences, meetings with young people, and regularly publishes posts less to promote himself than to spread the word of acceptance. “Life is difficult; when you have no arms, no legs, it's complicated. But look at the Paralympic Games, what all these athletes experienced. Cheered, singing their country's anthem, wearing a medal… Sport allows you to live and be someone. If you're moping around, you're nobody. I chose to be a disabled athlete.”

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