We think that Belgium winger Jérémy Doku has his priorities right. Last week, the 24-year old footballer player revealed that his wife, Shireen, was due to give birth to their first child in the second week of July, and that if his team was still competing in the World Cup, he would fly home to be by her side.
“It’s my first child, so I would definitely want to be there,” the Manchester City star told Reuters.
But one television journalist from France cared to express her disagreement. France Pierron, a host on French media outlet La Chaîne L’Équipe, publicly claimed that Doku’s decision was “disgusting”.
“The World Cup is an incredible joy,” she said in a message that was posted on the television channel’s Facebook page.
“There are hundreds of footballers who would kill to be in your shoes. It might never happen again in your life.”
“You’re living out a childhood dream, yet you’re going to walk away from it all to attend the birth of your child – a disgusting moment, if you’ll pardon the expression, where the dad is completely useless. He just holds your hand and takes a photo.”
Backlash to her words was swift, and the host issued a statement, saying she was “expressing a personal opinion, within the context of a contentious exchange.”
“These remarks are solely my own and in no way reflect a collective position,” she said. “I understand that they may have shocked, offended or hurt some of you, and I am sorry for that. My intention was never to minimise the place or role of fathers with their partners and children.”
L’Équipe published their own statement shortly after, saying Pierron’s comments had “shocked” many viewers. “L’Équipe distances itself with these remarks, which are far removed from [its] values and apologises to the footballer concerned and more broadly to its audience,” the statement said.
According to French outlet Clément Garin, Pierron has since been stood down from presenting duties and would remain off-air until the end of the current season of her program on 3 July.
For Jérémy and Shireen, they welcomed their baby son this week. The Belgian football federation said Doku had made it back to London in time for the birth.
Belgian’s team doctor, Brahim Hacene, said in a statement: “Jérémy received news before yesterday’s match that the birth was imminent. Everything went perfectly, and the mother, father, and baby are all doing wonderfully. Jérémy will rejoin the squad [on Tuesday] evening in Seattle.”
Last week, Doku said “nobody wants to miss the birth of their first child. But I also know that football involves many other considerations.”
“I know the federation supports its players and understands their situations. We’ll see what we can do.”
Jeremy Davies, Deputy CEO of the Fatherhood Institute in the UK, described Doku’s decision as “refreshing”.
“It seems ridiculous to me that we still have these big outrages, when men talk about wanting to do the most basic human thing imaginable, which is to be present when their baby is born,” he told the Guardian.
“To me, it’s like we haven’t moved on from the sort of gladiators in the Colosseum. You know, these kinds of masculine heroes who are supposed to have no softness to them, no family commitments or anything like that,” he said. “You can be a soft and loving man and hard as nails on the pitch, if you like.”
“In the end, fine – football is important, everybody loves football, everybody gets terribly excited. It’s just a job, on some level, too. This footballer gets it, and it seems to me that’s a healthy attitude in life. And if more of us had it, maybe the world would be a better place, you know?”