Pirès: padel feels like football at 4PADEL Cup

Robert Pirès is one of the best-known French footballers of his generation. The former Arsenal professional and 1998 world champion competed at the 4PADEL Football Cup in Paris and once again showed that padel is far more than a side hobby. Alongside Grégory Sertic he played for Team Marseille, speaking about his early discovery of the sport, its rapid growth in France and the special chemistry with his partner on court.

Padel at Canal+ and the idea of an in-house tournament

Before talking about his own game, Pirès turned his attention to the growing padel enthusiasm within the Canal+ editorial team. Several of the channel's consultants have taken up the discipline, even if not everyone has yet faced each other. As a natural rival he first named his partner for the day: Grégory Sertic. "For some time now we've formed a little duo and play a few tournaments. Today that allows us to be here in Paris," he explained.

Pirès also mentioned other Canal+ colleagues with whom he has already shared the court. To really find out who is strongest, he has a Canal+ tournament in mind: "That would be fun to see who is really the best," he said.

First encounter with padel in 2006 in Spain

Pirès is among the footballers who discovered padel very early – long before the current boom in France. He had his first experience in 2006 when he joined Villarreal. "I discovered padel in 2006. At that moment I signed for Villarreal and came across a discipline I did not know," he recalls.

He was particularly impressed by a complex near his home with 22 padel courts – a scale that was exceptional at the time. After that first phase he set the sport aside for a while. Since moving to Ibiza six years ago, however, padel has been firmly part of his daily life again. "Now that I've been living in Ibiza for six years, we play a lot there. I'm learning a lot and sometimes take lessons with Spaniards," Pirès reports.

Canal+'s role in the padel boom in France

For Pirès the explosion of padel in France is not really surprising. He is convinced that media coverage of the discipline has played a major part in its development – above all through Canal+, which broadcasts international top tournaments. "What matters is that if people discover or watch padel, it's thanks to Canal+. Canal+ secured the rights and now broadcasts all the tournaments there are around the world," he stresses.

When he watches the best professionals on the circuit, he also becomes aware of the gap between amateurs – even former elite athletes – and the specialists of the discipline. "You can watch the best players, they are simply exceptional. Of course it's their job, but when you see them live you are really far from their level," he admits. That difference does not reduce the fun; it fuels the desire to keep improving.

At the same time Pirès welcomes the construction of new padel facilities in France. "There is a real explosion in padel courts in France, and that's good because it lets us do something other than football. It's a discipline I really like," he says.

Football-like sensations on court

As a former attacking midfielder, Pirès finds many sensations on the padel court that he knew from the football pitch. For him there are numerous parallels: movement, anticipation, vision and rapid information processing. "The similarity between the footballer and what I feel today on a padel court is the movement, the anticipation, sometimes the vision," he explains.

Padel demands quick reactions, reading ball trajectories and decisions in fractions of a second – skills many ex-footballers bring with them. "You have to be fast, see fast, make a decision quite quickly. Sometimes it's about the moment," says Pirès. On lively courts, during intense interval efforts, he sometimes feels as if he is back on a football field – a thought that also shapes the title of the interview.

The partnership with Grégory Sertic

At the 4PADEL Football Cup Pirès formed the Marseille team with Grégory Sertic. The partnership works because roles are clearly divided. "With Greg we form Team Marseille today, but also Team Canal+ – we say it and we stand by it," Pirès stresses. On court Sertic plays on the left with a more offensive profile, while Pirès operates on the right in a more defensive role and frequently uses the lob.

"I'm on the right, more in defence. I try to put everything back in play. I use a weapon called the lob a lot – something I've learned a great deal about and am still learning in Spain, in Ibiza," he explains. That complementarity helped the pair reach the semi-finals and eventually the final. There the Marseille side lost to the Lyon pairing of Steed Malbranque and Sylvain Wiltord.

Beyond the result, Pirès stresses how hard it is to find the right partner in padel. "It's not easy to find a partner you really click with. Between Greg and me it's going well," he says. With his appearance in Paris Robert Pirès confirmed that padel is not just a leisure activity for former football professionals but a competitive arena where ambition, instincts and the joy of the game still play a central role.