Beaten in the quarter-finals of the 2017 Francophonie Games, the Ivorian Kanaté Ali still had a good week in Abidjan. The table tennis player has indeed given a spotlight to his discipline, after four years of sometimes difficult preparation in France.
The fruit of a long preparation
For Kanaté Ali, these 2017 Francophonie Games at home are the culmination of four years of effort spent mainly in France, and not always simple [see the video on Kanaté Ali’s journey, here]. “He was to join a training center in France [à Villefranche-sur-Mer, Ndlr], but the person who was to welcome him completely let him go at the administrative level, says Nicolas Petit, one of his leaders at the CSNTT. So I welcomed him into my home, in Nice, four years ago. I helped him with all the administrative procedures. It took two and a half years to get his residence permit. It really brought us closer because this situation was really very very hard to live with ”.
The one who trains him during the Games of La Francophonie 2017 continues: “It was difficult for Ali, at the beginning, whether in terms of the climate or the different codes of French society. But now it is fully integrated. He works, he has his apartment, he earns a living, he is independent. So he became flourishing in France. »
Kanaté Ali confirms, after two years in the Paris region where he trains young people in particular, as part of a civic service: “Everything is going very well. I work for the airline Transavia, a subsidiary of Air France. […] I am going to return to France to prepare for the World Championship, in Sweden. I also want to prepare for the French Championship because my club plans to move up to the national level. Its very important for us. »
