AFRICAN SPORTS MONTHLY
'Sports is our Business'
  • Home
  • NEWS
  • Rankings
  • Radio
  • TV

Bru: Mauritius are daring to dream 

10/5/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
​ Listen 
Now 30, former France youth star Jonathan Bru is preparing to embark on his first FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaign with Mauritius, the country of his parents’ birth. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, and a Mauritius international since 2010, Bru will be lining up against Kenya this coming Wednesday and Sunday in Round 1 of the African preliminaries for Russia 2018.

Following Club M’s 1-0 defeat of Mozambique in the qualifiers for the 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations in early September, the smiling Bru is confident his side can produce a similar performance when they entertain the Kenyans in Wednesday’s first leg.


“I’m full of hope after that win, my first with the national team in an official competition,” the Mauritius captain told FIFA.com. “I hope it’s going to create a good dynamic and that we’ll play well in the first game at home, give ourselves a chance in the return, and move on to play Cape Verde Islands in the next round.”

For the little island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the challenge of qualifying for the world finals is a daunting one, a long-distance obstacle race that only the continent’s major powers seem to have the resources to negotiate. Despite the odds facing the Mauritians, however, Bru is keeping the faith.

“I want to believe we can do it,” he commented. “Even the smallest win is a huge achievement for us. It’s dream because Mauritius has never won a World Cup qualifying match, but I’d love be part of the first Mauritian team to achieve the feat. Getting through to the group phase would be amazing for us.”

Bru’s optimism is founded on the recent strides Mauritian football has made off the pitch. “We’ve got a chairman here, Samir Sobha, who has done a great job since coming in a year ago. Our professional league got up and running a year ago and we have national teams in all the competitions, including the women’s and beach soccer tournaments.
“We’re playing a lot more friendly matches now, we’ve got a fitness coach and all the necessary structures are in place to help Mauritian football progress. We’re a small nation and even though we’re a small footballing country, all these changes are worth it and deserve to be supported. As players, we can feel that there’s a real desire to get things done and we don’t want it to stop.”

On the move
As Bru went on to explain, he is no stranger to international football and once harboured hopes of running out with France’s senior team. “I was a French youth international and was part of the most talented group of players in my generation, playing for France in every age group,” explained Bru, who earned a place at the French national football academy at Clairefontaine at the age of 13 before continuing his education with Stade Rennais, where he teamed up with the likes of Yoann Gourcuff and Jimmy Briand to win the Coupe Gambardella – France’s U-19 youth cup competition – in 2003. 
​
Unfortunately for Bru, however, he found the professional circuit much tougher to negotiate. “It was a very hard time for me,” he said of his first two years after turning pro, a time in which he barely played.

Having made his way from one of Paris’ poorer suburbs, where he started kicking the ball around with a certain Lassana Diarra, Bru decided he had had enough of sitting on the bench at Rennes, where he had seen his hopes of representing France at senior level slowly evaporate.

It was then that he began the journey that has taken him to where he is now. After a false start with Istres, he chose to broaden his horizons, spending three months in Australia, where he trained with a number of clubs.

“I’d seen that they’d started a league up a few years earlier, that it was well organised and that the wages were good. I thought it might be an interesting place for me for later in my career.” And so it proved. Following spells in Cyprus and Portugal, Bru eventually signed on the dotted line for Melbourne Victory in 2012.

“I like new challenges, travelling, meeting people and learning about new cultures,” he explained. “And if you can do that while living out your passion, then so much the better. So I joined the biggest club in Australia and I didn’t regret it at all. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my career so far, on every level.”

After then returning to Portugal, Bru now finds himself without a club, though he still has Club M to keep him busy and fire his dreams. “If I’d made the France team it would have been amazing from a footballing point of view. It’s the very highest level and when you play in the World Cup with Les Bleus, you’re there to win it. Mauritius is a different project and the goal is to qualify, maybe, for the World Cup for the first time,” he concluded.  
By: FIFA.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    July 2024
    June 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Menu

    All
    2014 FIFA World Cup
    Athletics
    Basketball
    Boxing
    Commonwealth Games
    Cricket
    Golf
    Hockey
    Marathons
    News
    Olympics
    Rugby
    Soccer
    Spotlight
    Tennis
    Track And Field
    Volleyball
    Women Soccer
    Wrestling


    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed


    Tweets by ASMONTHLY

Tweet to @ASMONTHLY

Contact Us

    Contact Us

Submit

Donate & Support Our Efforts at African Sports Media Network