In the Bundesliga, Marcus got his signature goal celebration: he tore the corner flag out of the ground and waved it like a banner. Who is this audacious child of the former French national footballer? He does not regret being the son of one of the best defenders in the history of France! Marcus Thuram does not suffer the weight of his last name. The Borussia Monchengladbach striker is 25 years old and is one of the most outstanding promises in the Bundesliga and the benchmark for one of the most important teams in German football.
Marcus Thuram: Interesting Facts About The Striker Born To Play Football!
Thuram once had to google himself for an entry ticket:
In 2020, the Borussia striker from Mönchengladbach (Markus Thuram the big football star) was not allowed to enter the stadium before the Champions League match against Inter.
Did you know that the young man had to show a photo from the Internet to get into the arena?
Of Course the athlete gained far more fame after he began playing in the French team at the World Cup in Qatar, and top clubs in Europe showed interest in his skills!
Marcus was named after a famous activist:
The child owes his name to the activist Marcus Garvey, a fighter for the rights of blacks, the parents named the boy in honor of a public figure. Marcus’ younger brother Khafre is named after an Egyptian pharaoh.
Maybe because his parents named him after him to honor civil rights activist Marcus Garvey, Thuram often shone off the pitch for his commitment to the fight against racism. After the tragic and controversial death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American brutally murdered by Derek Chauvin, after being arrested by the police in Minneapolis, he took a knee and paid tribute.
Thuram is a tall player:
With impressive speed, with incredible plasticity, it is hard to believe Marcus’s height is 192 cm, and weight is 90 kg.
Despite such a lanky body, about Marcus’s performance, there are no questions! While the quality of his game does not suffer, the striker is able to close the flank alone: “I often move to the center and join attacks as a striker, freeing up areas for flank defenders. I love this role.”
Some personal hobbies and private likes of Marcus:
Marcus Thuram does not advertise his personal life on social networks, the guy is focused on his career. He loves basketball and is fond of collecting gadgets related to Hollywood movies. The football player collects expensive cars, racing in the desert in the Middle East.
Another fun fact is that the young Thuram is fluent in five languages: French, English, German, Spanish and Italian. In Mönchengladbach, the guy lives in a hotel next to the stadium.
Marcus has a family tie to football:
Speaking of his parents, Marcus was born on August 6, 1997 in Parma, Italy to his father the former defender Lilian Thuram, the French national team record holder in the number of matches played, the winner of the 1998 World Cup, and even the Euro 2000. The son of a legendary defender who is now the star of Borussia Monchengladbach but as a child, Lilian yelled at his son when he wanted to play as a central defender.
Lilian did not want his sons Chefren and Markus to play football, he was afraid that fans and journalists would compare the guys’ game with his achievements. However, then the defender changed his mind, wanting to continue the sports family dynasty.
A childhood surrounded by football stars:
Marcus was born when his father was actively playing for Parma with Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro and specifically he is his eldest son, but he doesn’t look too much like him, since he plays forward and his father played as a central defender (he only scored 15 times in a career of 825 games). When the head of the family played for Barcelona, the boys visited the Catalan training field, they went to the famous houses of Ronaldinho and Carles Pujols.
A childhood among stars when Lilian was playing for Barcelona, Marcus explained that one of his father’s “friends” was so kind that he gave him a pair of boots.
This “friend” was Lionel Messi, who was only 20 at the time: “I was carefree at the time, I was a 10-year-old boy, and he was 20,” Marcus told one magazine called AFP. “His boots were too petite for me so I handed them to a friend, he must still have them!”
Marcus Thuram’s early football career:
Marcus’ sports journey began at the Olympic football academy in 2007. Unlike the illustrious father, who played as a defender, the guy played in the attack. The coaches characterized the young man as an athlete who is not afraid to fight for the ball when Marcus studied at the Olympic and Boulogne academies.
Then he spent his formative career in the Sochaux youth academy, where he arrived at the age of 15 on the recommendation of his father after signing a pro contract in 2015.
“There is not much pressure from the media, because Sochaux is very far from everything; it is a bubble of protection. It was my father who told me to leave!” Marcus stated to one magazine.
In the Sochaux academy, one of the most renowned in France, he began to stand out and reached the France Under-17 team and then played in the Under-20 until making his professional debut in March 2015 at just 18 years old.
The young striker, who did not perform very well at the adult level and scored one goal in two seasons, played for the French youth team, and won the European Youth Championship. Soon he moved to Guingamp, where he began to get into the starting lineup more often.
Marcus debuted at just 18 years old:
His first goal was against Lyon, with a header. The celebration was true to family style, raising his hand to his mouth in a thoughtful attitude, just as his famous father Lilian did when he scored twice for France in the 1998 World Cup semifinal against Croatia, the only time he had scored for his selection in 142 games.
From there he went to Guigamp, where in two seasons in Ligue 1 he scored 17 goals in 72 games and finished establishing himself in the elite to attract the attention of Borussia Monchengladbach, a club that has specialized in recruiting young talents.
His father closely followed his son’s career when it hit rock bottom:
Marcus’s dad, the former French professional footballer Lilian, attended matches with Marcus and motivated him to score goals. In 2019, the guy scored a goal against PSG in injury time and knocked out an opponent from the League Cup, breaking the impressive unbeaten run of the Parisians, which had been dragging on since last season.
However, in Guingamp there were not only bright victories, but also failures: for example, in the championship match against Rennes, the striker did not score a penalty in the last minutes. The team was relegated to Ligue 2, and the disappointed Thuram burst into tears, and the partners had to calm him down.
His father also guided him to Borussia Mönchengladbach:
In July 2019, the striker moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach, the club paid €12 million for the player. Initially, Marcus’s father opposed the transfer, but he changed his mind after visiting the training base – the elder Thuram was impressed with the stallions’ infrastructure.
As for the athlete himself, he calmly accepted the offer from Germany: a fan of computer football simulators often took clubs from the Bundesliga, and his favorite player was Marco Royce, who also played in Gladbach early in his career.
At the height of his career, Marcus was hit with a red card:
Thuram became one of the discoveries of the German championship, thanks to his goals the club qualified for the group stage of the Champions League. Marcus scored against Real Madrid, and in 2020 he was called up to the French national team for the first time.
The striker’s reputation was badly damaged after an incident with a spit in the face of Hoffenheim defender Stefan Posch. Markus saw a red card in front of him, he was suspended from training and unfortunately fined € 40 thousand.
Thuram was no longer called up to the national team, the father had to be responsible for the actions of his son: “I fully understand what is happening in the media right now. I watched the match and was in shock. I even asked myself if this was really my son. After all this, he explained to me that he was beside himself with anger, that he had offended his opponent unintentionally, he just salivated. He wants people to understand that this happened involuntarily.”
Where is Marcus Thuram now?
Thuram, who was last called up by Deschamps for the World Cup 2022, was added to the French national team, which was preparing for the start of the World Cup in Qatar. The reason for this decision of the coaching staff was an epidemic of injuries in the team – for example, the tournament was missed by the current owner of the Golden Ball forward Karim Benzema. At the same time, the position of the central striker is booked for Kylian Mbappe, Didier Deschamps uses Marcus as a rotation player.
The Borussia striker did not score a goal in his 4 World Cup games (67′) but provided an assist. In the current Bundesliga season, he has accumulated 10 goals and 3 assists in 15 games, as well as 3 goals and one assist in 2 German Cup games.
Thuram’s current contract with Borussia Monchengladbach runs until the summer of 2023, and the player is not going to renew the agreement. In order not to lose the player for free, whose transfer fee is estimated at € 30 million, the “stallions” intend to sell him after the end of the World Cup. Now Bayern, Arsenal, Newcastle, Milan and Inter are claiming the son of the former Monaco, Parma, Juventus and Barcelona defender – Junior Thuram.
