Thursday 16 July 2015. I am studying Transport Design at Créapole, and it is not going very well. But without knowing it, this date would become the starting point of a major change in my life. It marks my arrival at the We Are Tennis Fan Academy, a new group of supporters set on reinventing the atmosphere around tennis courts. A few days earlier, I had gone through an ultra-selective casting: write a text explaining why I would make a good new supporter, then prove it on camera, in front of John McEnroe himself as the judge. On holiday in the south-west at the time, I headed straight back to Paris and, on that famous second Thursday of July, boarded the train with the whole crew.
I lived through the most painful defeats and the most brilliant victories from the stands. I saw France win in 2017 in a half-empty football stadium. I lost my voice more than once. I had the best laughs of my life. Above all, I managed a 180° career turn thanks to tennis.
I wrote a lot of match reports on the We Are Tennis Facebook page. As time went by, they became more detailed and precise. Score, turning points, instant and cool-headed analysis, it was all there. People liked my posts, but using them to learn how to become a journalist one day was still a long way off. Several people convinced me in private messages.
I started doing internships here and there. First in the motoring press, for a few years. Tennis came later, on a small news site specialising in short online news items. Two very intense months. The machine was well and truly running. I moved into general sports journalism through a small site that was growing fast. Thanks to them, I got noticed on social media, including Twitter.
Then I signed up for the Garantie Jeunes, a local employment scheme that gives young people financial support and helps them find work. Provided you have a real career plan.
The director passed on the contact details of the editor-in-chief of La Marne, the big local daily. Bingo: a few weeks later, I became a local press correspondent for the sports section. Every weekend I covered football, tennis, basketball and handball. Photos, pitch-side interviews, stats and a written report, it was all there! The hardest part? Approaching players and coaches after matches, people I did not know. And yet, how much I learned! Let's not talk about pay, even if it reached two digits at the end of the month: I was there to learn the job.
The next step was to find a school to polish everything I had taught myself. In 2018, I applied to La Chance aux Médias. I passed the first selection round with flying colours, but was not admitted because of a gap in my school record that I could not justify. In all, I “lost” two years trying to get into that school. Back to square one.
ESJ, IEJ, CFPJ: all those barbaric acronyms scared me. I did not want to relive the mental hell of Créapole.
In the middle of March, I came across an Instagram live from a journalism school that looked interesting. Based in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, it favours work-study over classroom teaching and highlights the quality of its lecturers, all working professionals. Without a second thought, I joined the live, asked to enrol and filled in the form. A few weeks later I had a video interview with the director. He set me a written test, which I did that afternoon and sent the same evening.
It was during a family party that I learned my application had been accepted! Imagine the reaction of my mother and my aunt when they heard the news, glass of champagne in hand. Yes, we had reached dessert…
May 2021. I visited the premises, discovered a well-stocked audiovisual equipment store available to students, and saw the classrooms. I spent the summer completely won over by the idea of setting foot in a real journalism school in September. To get a complete training, you need a work-study placement. Internships, there are plenty of those. Work-study contracts, on the other hand…
I started looking in June, using every contact I had. Twitter, phone, family, friends, even my own summer job. All summer long, I juggled emails (or calls) that led nowhere and vague replies: “Thank you for your application. We will contact you as soon as possible.” Hmm.
The new year started in September. More than 40 students in one big room, I had lost the habit. Then the class was split in two. And that is when things got serious. Writing commentary, producing a magazine, learning radio and its basics, sports commentary: every aspect of the job was covered! But still no work-study placement.
“Tennis changed my life. More than ever, I am grateful to it. In the space of five years, I went from a professionally lost young adult to a fulfilled apprentice journalist.”
A first call was answered by a tennis media outlet looking to grow. We agreed on an internship offer, a remote contract, better than nothing. But it was still not a work-study placement. I decided to keep it up my sleeve and carry on looking.
Coming out of a class, I received a text message. An editor-in-chief wanted to meet me. My appointment was the following Wednesday in the 3rd arrondissement. I discovered offices in a baroque style, framed front covers each more graphically daring than the last, and my future editor-in-chief welcoming me into a large meeting room. I talked about my story, my hobbies and my taste for interior design, which I got from my mother. We clicked very quickly. A writing exercise was sent to assess my level.
On 17 November 2021, I joined L'ADN. The relief was immense, and for good reason: at 26, everything was paid for, I would earn a salary AND work in areas I did not know, such as community management, video editing and on-camera reporting. What about my internship? The contract was changed to a very short one, 1 to 2 articles a week, on tennis.
Work-study to learn the job, the internship to improve on a subject I love. I am a fulfilled man, but not a satisfied one.
“I work every day on my general knowledge and my professional ethics. I aspire to make my favourite commentators, web writers and TV presenters my future colleagues. The road is long and hard, but I am far too hungry not to get there.”
And since then?
I wrote this text at the end of 2021, when I was starting my work-study at L'ADN. What came next: 120 articles for 18h39.fr, then a second work-study placement at Groupe M6, where I published 650 articles on Turbo.fr and created the site's weekly news show. In March 2023, I covered the Indian Wells tournament for We Are Tennis, coming full circle.
From September 2024 to September 2025, I was a video journalist for the Turbo show on M6: 43 shows and around 800,000 viewers every week. I graduated top of my class with a Master's in journalism from ISFJ, and got my press card.
Since then, I have been a pundit for MonPariSport on MonParisFM and for Afro Foot on Global Africa Télésud, through to the 2026 World Cup. Still just as hungry.
