If you are a regular RFI listener, and a football fan, the name and voice of Alejandro Valente are familiar to you. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, this episode invites you to hear it. A journalist, he joined RFI in 1982. He is retiring after four decades behind the microphone. In this episode, he wanted to indulge a little and tell some memories.
In this episode of News cookies, Alejandro Valente returns in particular to the kidnapping, by the FARC guerrillas, of the Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt in 2002. She had spent 6 years in the jungle before being released. Close to the family of the Franco-Colombian, Alejandro had learned that during her captivity, she had the possibility of listening to RFI. Armed with this information, this is how RFI decided to broadcast messages intended for it, in particular messages from his children : “ We thought of Melanie and Lorenzo, who hadn’t had any contact with her for years when they were teenagers. When we started sending messages, we decided that the recordings would be public to interest other media in the fate of Ingrid Betancourt. In fact, there was a crazy world and it was difficult to put all the journalists and all the cameras in our studios “.
This will mark the start on-air supportfor French hostages around the world.
Summing up forty years of current affairs is not easy, Alejandro evokes the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Gulf War, ten years earlier, or even the death of Lady Diana in 1997, but his real passion is the soccer. In this episode, he mentions in particular the handing over to Lionel Messi of his first Ballon d’Or in 2009 : “ I went to his house in Barcelona. He was a very nice kid, very shy and who seemed a little overwhelmed by the emotion he felt. Outside of football, he had little experience. I made him discover Paris with his family. And I see with pleasure, that with age, he has grown, that he is more cultured, that he likes to go to the theater and do something other than play football. “.
Alejandro Valente was also close to the Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, who passed away on November 25, 2020 : “ He is a very different character from Lionel Messi. He is someone I have often accompanied. We’ve had some pretty amazing times. With him, we had the impression of seeing the world differently, so everything around him was excessive and passionate. “.
This retirement after 40 years of career at RFI, Alejandro says he prepared it. He will now devote himself to writing. ” The idea is not to start a literary career, but to leave a trace of certain facts that I have experienced. In particular, I have already written a long story for my son to tell him why I left Argentina in 1976. This book is a great experience and I will continue on this path a little. “.
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