“That's what the French captain told me! I threw my boots at them, the bottles”

• The podcast with Florin Bratu will be available on Gazeta Sporturilor's YouTube channel (SUBSCRIBE HERE!), as well as on GSP.ro, starting from Friday, 18:00

Bratu was a very good striker for Romania at the beginning of the 2000s. Champion with Rapid, Florin, however, did not fully confirm abroad. Some solid games, some goals, but no consistency.

The first time he went to Turkey, to Galatasaray – in 2003. A year later, he transferred to France, where he would play for two teams: Nantes and Valenciennes.

“If you ask me about France, I would say more on the negative side. I had very big problems of adaptation”declares Bratu, present in the Gazeta Sporturilor studio.

VIDEO | Florin Bratu, on the GSP “2 to 1” podcast: “In France, he put me in the corner directly”

Loic Amisse, coach of Nantes from '04-'05, did not intend to talk to Bratu in any other language than French.

“The first thing I ran into: I didn't know French at all. In the first conversation with the coach, when I started to speak English, he said: “Stop! I don't know English, I don't even want to speak in English, from tomorrow you have a French teacher and you have to learn French». They are nationalists, there are few who speak English. Anyway, he put me in the corner straight away”, reports the former striker of the national team.

“And that's how I learned French. After 4-5 months, I was giving interviews at the end of matches in French. They forced me to learn,” he continues.

Florin Bratu discusses for the first time about discrimination in France

Asked if he felt marginalized in FranceBratu replied as follows: “Yes. I felt something in Valenciennes… They used to tell me, more jokingly, more seriously… Look, at the beginning, the team captain said to me: «Florin, I passed the traffic lights in the morning and I saw your compatriots there». They took me hard! I threw my boots at them, the bottles, I started playing, giving them crosses, scoring goals, and then, from «Florin, I saw your compatriots at the traffic lights», we reached «Florin, are you going to the table with us?». They are realities… I suffered, but I was lucky: I was not as weak as the angels, I did not fall. On the contrary, I became ambitious”.

• Mickael Landreau (Nantes) and Laurent Dufresne (Valenciennes) were Bratu's captains in France.

Florin Bratu (here in Valenciennes' shirt) has 3 goals and an assist in 35 Ligue 1 matches, photo: Imago Images

“2 to 1” with Florin Bratu, Friday, 18:00. The main topics addressed:

• felt marginalized in France – harsh revelations;
• the huge bonus lost after the drama suffered with Dinamo;
• why does he say he has a “needle deep in his soul”;
• the injury that ended his career;
• Florin Bratu, dynamist or rapidist?
• the incendiary derbies with Steaua/FCSB;
• the horror matches they would replay;
• how Vincent Kompany impressed him;
• the conflict with Dan Nistor;
• the choice made “unconsciously” as a coach;
• admits that he did not succeed enough as a technician;
• choose the career goal and name the best Romanian strikers.

@gsp.ro Florin Bratu is invited to the GSP podcast “2 to 1” » The GSP podcast “2 to 1” is on Friday, 18:00, on the Gazeta Sporturilor YouTube channel #2la1 #florinbratu #gsp ♬ original sound – GSP – Gazeta Sporturilor

About Florin Bratu:

• now TV analyst and coach at CS Dinamo, which he promoted to the 2nd League;
• played in Romania at Tractorul Brașov, Electromagnetica, Rapid, Dinamo, Gaz Metan and Gloria Bistrița;
• “outside” he performed for Galatasaray (Turkey), Nantes, Valenciennes (France), Litex Loveci (Bulgaria);
• 45 goals in 135 Superliga games;
• the first time he really confirmed at Rapid, where he won a title, a Cup and a SuperCup, between 2000 and 2003;
• at Dinamo he played for 4 seasons (2005-2006, 2007-2010) and won a Romanian SuperCup in red and white, scoring 28 goals in 67 games for the “dogs” in League 1;
• abroad, he won two trophies, both with Litex, a title and a SuperCup;
• wore the national team shirt 13 times, scored twice;
• his transfers totaled 6.5 million euros;
• started coaching in 2014 – trained Dinamo II, CS Tunari, Dinamo U19, Dinamo, Aerostar, Turris, Concordia, Karmiotissa (Cyprus), plus the Romanian national teams U18 and U21;
• with Dinamo's U19 team, technician Bratu triumphed in the Elite League in 2017;
• another achievement as a coach is the play-out won with Dinamo's first team in 2018.