Alexis Beka-Beka celebrates his 23rd birthday this Friday and Francesco Farioli, his coach, did not fail to wish him a happy birthday at a press conference before the reception in Nantes (Sunday) for the 27th day of Ligue 1.
“Today is Alexis Beka Beka’s birthday. We send him all our thoughts, on behalf of the entire team. We wanted to send him our wishes. I think this is an excellent time to do it,” he said before starting to answer questions from journalists.
On September 29, 2023, Alexis Beka Beka attempted to end his life, by threatening to throw himself from the Magnan viaduct, near Nice. He was finally taken care of by the firefighters, after long hours of negotiations with the emergency services and a psychologist from his club.
The coach's words for Alexis Beka Beka, of whom #OGCNice thinks very highly 🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/wbJkXwE1x4
— OGC Nice (@ogcnice) March 29, 2024
Asked about the state of his player, Farioli preferred to kick into touch. “On this, we remain on the line that we have chosen from the beginning: to respect and maintain total confidentiality, as often happens and as has happened,” justified the 34-year-old Italian coach.
He then directly addressed the journalists to salute their attitude for six months: “It has never been a theme of our conferences or our interviews. Thank you for always being very respectful, above all of Alexis. »
“We don’t lose sight of him”
“Today I really had to send a public message to a boy and a player who, at the moment, is not with us physically but I can guarantee, he is with us every day, in our thoughts. We don't lose sight of him. There is the desire to quickly find him and reintegrate him in the best possible way,” he concluded.
The day after what could have been a tragedy, Francesco Farioli spoke at length about the issue of the mental health of athletes, often minimized or even despised. “We must not hide when we face these kinds of problems. This should not be taboo,” he recalled.
This season, Alexis Beka Beka has not set foot on a single pitch. In the six games before his suicide attempt, he was on the bench for two games and was not even in the squad for the other four. Since then, he has obviously no longer been at Aiglons training sessions.