Google News
Earvin Ngapeth is a man who achieved a lot. One of the best volleyball players in the world played football as a boy, but in the end, he decided to play volleyball. In an interview with fifa.com, he talked about football, playing football, but also volleyball.
Whether there is still time for football he revealed "Yes, there’s still ample room! For a start I enjoy Playstation and its FIFA22 game any chance I get, and when I have a little spare time, I go to the municipal sports ground, where we organize small games with friends.
However, I must admit that I don’t do it as often as I used to, as there’s always the fear of injury." How you started playing football? "As a child, I could never get enough football. At the time I was living in in Frejus and attended a football academy, but when I was 11 my family moved to Poitiers.
The volleyball scene there is much bigger than the football one, so that’s when I started playing." "I was a No.9, so centre-forward, although I played one season in goal because I was injured. "
Football career
A fifa.com reporter asked Ngapeth if it was true that Kurzawa was warming up the bench while Ngapeth was playing? "That story has been exaggerated a bit (laughs).
There was one game, out of about 72, where Layvin was on the bench and I started. Even then, the coach brought him on early as we were losing. Honestly, there was no comparison between the two of us." There were rumors that while playing in Russia he registered to play football? "Yes, that’s true!
I was in Russia and a bit homesick, as I was still quite young and far away from my friends and family. I left my club but wasn’t allowed to play again in another volleyball club in France for contractual reasons. So, I got a license to play amateur football for a few weeks...
It was cool except that all the matches I could’ve played in were cancelled because of the weather!"
Ngapeth did not regret choosing volleyball instead of football. "No, my volleyball career has been very fulfilling.
The life of a footballer looks more complicated than mine: more pressure, more media coverage... But it's true that I would’ve liked to have continued with football for longer, because the game itself is really interesting to play."