Ricardo Faty On Senegal vs. France and the Best Players He’s Lined Up Against | OneFootball

Representing Senegal at the senior level and France at the youth level, Ricardo Faty has close ties to both nations who’ll be squaring off in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup. He gives his thoughts on the match, his career that spread across the top leagues of Europe, and more in an exclusive interview. 

We are less than five months away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and it’s fair to say that there are quite a few enticing group stage fixtures to salivate over. Uruguay will face Spain in Guadalajara, Colombia will meet Portugal in Miami, and Japan will take on the Netherlands in Dallas.

But perhaps the most intriguing match of them all will be in New Jersey, where newly crowned AFCON champions Senegal will go head-to-head with France, a perennial world power that has made it to the last two World Cup finals.

The two nations have a long intertwined history that includes colonial rule, but they’ve only met on the football pitch once, in the 2002 FIFA World Cup where Senegal shocked the defending world champions 1-0 behind a goal from Papa Bouba Diop.

Back then, Ricardo William Faty was a Parisian teenager with a dream of becoming a professional footballer. In the following decade, he’d represent both France and Senegal at the international level.

“It was a turning point,” said Faty in an exclusive Urban Pitch interview. “At the time, growing up in the ’90s and early ’00s as the descendant of immigrants, you don’t feel like a foreigner, you actually feel French. I always considered myself French, but once this game happened in 2002, and I saw my country of origin beat France, it sprouted something in my mind, just like it did for other kids like me: ‘Oh wow, we can beat those guys!’

“It made me realize that I’m French, but I’m also like them, I’m also Senegalese. All of these identification processes changed a bit for an entire generation of immigrant diaspora, for all of the young kids living in the suburbs and throughout France. It was a huge thing, it was historic. That’s why you see more and more French-based players playing for the Senegalese national team. For me, it wasn’t key for choosing my sporting nationality, but it helped in a way.”

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Born in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges on August 4, 1986, Faty is the son of a Senegalese-Vietnamese father and a Cape Verdean mother. Faty grew up in the Paris metropolitan region and quickly impressed as a footballer, earning a spot in the vaunted Institut national du football de Clairefontaine, the finest academy in all of France.

He played at Clairefontaine from 1999 to 2002 alongside future stars like Medhi Benatia, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Blaise Matuidi, before leaving his hometown and making the move to Strasbourg, where he soared through the ranks and eventually debuted for the first team on October 20, 2005 in a UEFA Cup match against Basel. Despite not yet having a professional contract, Faty made 15 appearances, the most important of which saw him deliver a promising display against Italian outfit Roma.

Faty caught the attention of then-Roma manager Luciano Spalletti, and when Strasbourg suffered relegation, Spalletti pounced by signing him up for €350,000.

“To be honest, I was surprised when I heard that Roma were interested in me,” said Faty to RG. “I’ve always been a big fan of Serie A and AS Roma, so I was very happy when I heard they were interested. I couldn’t resist the opportunity, and I’m now I’m proud to say that I played in Roma, my favorite club.”

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He featured 26 times for Roma and won the 2006-07 Coppa Italia title, but failed to secure a starting spot before joining Bayer Leverkusen on a two-year loan. Faty lasted just six months in Germany until returning to France with Nantes, where he experienced both promotion and relegation, before returning to the Italian capital for the 2009-10 campaign. After commencing his career in three of Europe’s top five leagues, Faty opted to drop down a level and join Greek side Aris Salonica, where he made 56 appearances between 2010 and 2012.

Faty was 20 years old when he converted from Catholicism to Islam, and he was 25 when he switched nationalities. Having played eight times for France’s U21s between 2006 and 2007, Faty would play five times for Senegal in 2012, a year which also saw him return to France with AC Ajaccio. He left after their relegation and spent a season with Belgian side Standard Liége, before heading east and representing Bursaspor and MKE Ankaragücü. After five years in Türkiye, he then played for Italian side Reggina before enjoying a swan song with C’Chartres Football in the French fourth division.

Ever since retiring at the end of the 2022-23 season, Faty has spent his time raising his three daughters in Paris while his son is playing high school basketball in Rhode Island, in addition to working as a pundit for various French TV outlets, and coaching boys and girls at Clairefontaine.

We were able to catch up with Faty for a Q&A session, discussing his career, being hailed as the next Patrick Viera, and his thoughts on the upcoming Senegal-France group stage match.

Urban Pitch: You’ve played in three of the best leagues in the world: Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga. How do they all compare with one another?

Ricardo Faty: It’s difficult to judge, because a lot has changed. At the time, in the 2000s and early 2010s, Serie A was a huge competition, it was very specific with Italian coaches and it had a lot of big players, and Inter won the treble in 2010. Italy was very huge, and then the Bundesliga started to rise with teams like Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, and Borussia Dortmund starting to get into their rhythm. Ligue 1 is still the same. It’s a league for the best young prospects, it’s a very athletic league.

Back then it was different, but now, for me, the Bundesliga is one of the best leagues in Europe alongside the Premier League, while Serie A has declined a little bit, but in my period, Serie A was very tough. It wasn’t the pinnacle, because the Premier League has been the best league in the world for the past 20 to 25 years, but it was a very good league that had incredible teams and world-class players.

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After man-marking Rivaldo out of the game in your Champions League debut vs. Olympiacos, you were praised as the next Patrick Vieira by quite a few tabloids. What was it like dealing with that hype?

For me, it was nothing, I know who I am. At that time, it was more the people at the Italian newspapers who were waiting for a huge performance, but I knew that I wasn’t that guy, I was just me. Obviously, I wanted to look like Vieira and be as good as him, but for me, it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe, in the eyes of the spectators, of the fans, maybe they were waiting for that, but for me, it was not an added pressure.

You’ve played against some of the best players of the 21st century, but who’s the toughest opponent you’ve faced?

I’m never impressed even when I play against good players, but I was impressed with two players: Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Clarence Seedorf. Zlatan was just amazing. Seedorf was so impressive, because he’d have unbelievable energy and natural strength. Another tough player that I played against in France is Yoann Gourcuff, who used to be a No. 10 for France. He was an amazing player, it’s too bad that he got injured a lot and maybe lost confidence and wasn’t pushing 100%, but when he was playing at his prime, he was unbelievable.

You had a lot of incredible moments as a footballer during your 18-year career, but do you have any things that, looking back, you wish you had done differently?

There are many things that I regret, but I might say Leverkusen. I’d have gone there again, but this time, maybe I’d have stayed for the entirety of my two-year loan instead of saying, “Enough” and leaving after six months. My coach Michael Skibbe got fired just a few months after I left for Nantes, so maybe under a new coach (Bruno Labbadia), with a new style and strategy and everything, maybe I’d have adapted to Germany’s style of play and culture after one year in Leverkusen, and maybe my second Bundesliga season would have been nice.

You know who came to replace me after I left Leverkusen? Toni Kroos. When I arrived, it was Arturo Vidal, who was playing really well already, and right after I left, Kroos came. I’m not saying that I could have been like Kroos, but you never know. That’s why I’m a bit curious, maybe I could’ve played alongside Kroos and we could’ve shared some stuff. I was still young, so if I could use a time machine, maybe I’d go back to 2007 and tell myself to stay at Leverkusen instead of leaving immediately.

Is it safe to say that 40% of your life is coaching, 40% of your life is being a husband and a father, and 20% of your life is being a pundit? 

Exactly, this is a good way to split it. 40, 40, 20 is a good ratio. Maybe, you’d put 38, 38, 22, and the remaining 2%, I use to play PlayStation. I’ll sometimes play online with my son in NBA 2K, I’ll play Assassin’s Creed, I don’t play any football video games anymore. I don’t like it anymore because it’s changed a lot, I’m done with that. I just play NBA and adventure games.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Ricardo Faty (@rickyfaty_14)

Do you see yourself coaching in the long-term?

Okay, in the short term, to be in Clairefontaine is good. Maybe being a director could be nice, and after, if I have the opportunity to be a second coach, or assistant, why not? But yes, I would like to be on the pitch. I’ve achieved a master’s in management, I like the management, I like the direction, but I prefer to be on the pitch. And I can still play, so sometimes I play with the kids, and I’m still enjoying myself. I don’t have any injury, my body is good right now, so I’m still okay to play and I like to be on the pitch.

One last question. June 16, France, Senegal, MetLife Stadium, who are you rooting for?

May the best team win. I can’t say myself, because honestly, for me…it’s like my mother told me, she said, “If someone asks you about France vs. Senegal, say, ‘It’s like the blood and the heart, you can’t dissociate one from the other.'”

For me, Senegal is the blood, and France is the heart, so honestly, I can’t choose. Even sometimes in the TV in France, they ask me, “France or Senegal?” I say, “No, I can’t choose.” They say “Please, please, you have to choose. Are you from Senegal or France?” I say, “No, no, no, now I’m coaching in the French Federation, and I played for Senegal, so I can’t choose, because honestly, those are my two countries.”