Former Manchester United striker David Bellion on how he came to work for a ‘one of a kind’ art gallery
The Frenchman is an ambassador for revered art and design firm YMER&MALTA as well as the creative director of Red Star FC
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DAVID BELLION has always loved art.
Not art in the sense of painting, drawing, galleries and museums, but in terms of creativity and design.
When SunSport travelled to Paris in October to meet with the former Sunderland, Manchester United, West Ham and Bordeaux striker, the 35-year-old touched on his new career in the arts.
We returned to France to delve further into his life post-retirement, where Bellion has found himself working with one of the most in-demand design directors in France.
"I didn't grow up with a lot of art," Bellion tells SunSport from a perfectly crafted settee in Paris, "I am from a modest family.
"But from young I was very, very particular in the things I liked, in everything I wanted to have.
"I think I always had a good eye for something that looked different or 'edgy'. I always wanted the trainers that nobody else had.
"I was always against the flow, in everything I wanted to do. It grew into art."
Knocking on the big black door of I thought I was walking into a gallery - but it's not really a gallery, it's much, much more.
It is hard to define Bellion's role with the company and to define the company itself, such is its unique nature.
"One of a kind," the former striker says, "You cannot say it's a gallery or a studio, it has no definition."
PART TWO What made David Bellion so attracted to Ymer&;Malta
Bellion works closely with the brains of the operation, Valerie Maltaverne, as a sounding board and an ambassador, but the pair have also struck up a strong friendship over their shared love of all things art and design.
Valerie has designed pieces for French public buildings, the financial elite, globally-renowned high end luxury brands and also has her pieces displayed in museums across Europe and in the US.
The price-tag of such pieces is unknown, with client discretion at a premium.
We can only assume that the one of a kind work fetches tens of thousands, if not more.
Dubbed the "new Thierry Henry" at the time, Bellion cost Sir Alex Ferguson £2million in 2003.
He describes Valerie as the "Banksy or Daft Punk" of the art world - everyone has seen her work, radical and visionary, and appreciated it, but not everyone knows she is the one behind it.
Bellion became friends with Valerie after seeing a piece of her work, reading up on it - and then one day cycling across Paris to knock on her front door.
David explains: "I saw something on the photos and it was love at first sight. It was a shelf.
"It was a mix of the project and personal taste, and we stayed friends because we have a lot in common.
"After, I thought if I could stay involved in YMER&MALTA, whatever I can do to help, I'll do it."
Valerie adds: "He is a passionate guy, he wants to be involved.
"He really appreciates and understands where we are going, what we are saying."
Footballers are often stereotyped as rich, flashy and - rightly or wrongly - lacking taste and class.
But Bellion is clearly extremely knowledgeable and well read up on all things art and design.
He has a strong appreciation of different styles, from classical works, modern street art, architecture, furniture - even seeing beauty in fashion and food.
It is fine craftsmanship, whatever form that may take, that he really seems attracted to.
So how did a former footballer (and all the cliched images that may conjure) come to appreciate such craftsmanship?
Before he could speak, Valerie interjects: "David is so curious, he wants to know."
He then adds: "I spend my life observing. I feed my life with everything. It grew into art, music, fashion, design, food. It [his appreciation for art] grows.
"We are surrounded [by art and design], wherever you go. I think it's part curiosity.
"I don't know if it's genetics as well, but my dad is an architect, he writes poetry. I didn't grow up with him, but when I see him and his character I feel the same."
David sees beauty in many things - and is a collector of many different items.
He even turned his hand to creating his own piece of art. It was only the once, however, and he admits the results were "something a bit crazy".
Inspired by a scene in a film, he created a bench with a Japanese artist... which was held up to the ceiling by big red balloons filled with helium.
"I was too crazy, radical, obsessive at the time, I just wanted it," he reveals. "I sold it when I sold my restaurant. When he made it, it went round the world."
Since retiring in 2016, Bellion has also started working with another of his former clubs, Red Star FC, as their creative director.
Formed in 1897 by the man behind the World Cup, Jules Rimet, Red Star are France's second oldest club and Paris' second club, something of an ideological opposite to their oil-rich neighbours Paris Saint-Germain.
Bellion finished his playing career with Red Star, helping them gain promotion to Ligue 2 in his first year as champions, although they are back in the third tier after relegation last season.
His position came about as he shared a mutual friend with the Red Star chairman, Patrice Haddad, a film producer.
"I want to develop Red Star in bigger ways," David says.
"For me it's a club where you can develop a whole lifestyle around it. You have to find a balance of not being too glamorous and also not being too hipster or edgy.
"Because it's still a working class club. We are actually compared all the time to St Pauli in Germany. Very underground. You can't make it so it's artificial."
Traditionally a communist club, hence the name, Red Star even count former French president Francois Hollande as one of their supporters.
This is a club that rejected their chairman's promise of a new €200million stadium to stay in the Stade Bauer, a tiny, crumbling ground that was not deemed good enough while they were in Ligue 2 - meaning the club had to play nearly 50 miles away in Beauvais.
Bellion's fingerprints are all over the club now, with Bellion working in a position unique in football.
He was behind a collaboration with hipster favourite Vice magazine, who sponsor their shirt and have full access to the club and the players.
A DJ mixes songs inside the stadium and Bellion also helped set up the Red Star Lab - his current passion project.
During school holidays, kids on the books of the club have the chance to learn a number of different things, such as photography, street art, cooking and even dancing.
The kids have also created a fanzine, writing articles and taking pictures with help from professional photographers and journalists.
"We want to educate them in culture," says Bellion, "so they can think of different things they could do in their life.
"We helped them to think how they might want their magazine and they did the rest, entirely."
Bellion also had another collaboration with Red Star and French fashion brand Racket.
His famous bike was instrumental, again, in the relationship starting.
"The same as Valerie, I took my bike, I said to my wife 'I have a good feeling with this guy'.
"I went at the weekend, at his office there is no name, you don't know even if you have to knock. The guy came - it was a coincidence, the office was actually closed and I was ready to leave.
"He came on a hire bike. The character of Red Star, the DNA, he understood it.
"We built a crazy movie... it's a two minute film, sheep on an articficial pitch, African drums, a model wearing a golden laser-cut whistle with a beret, a legionnaire jacket and jersey.
"And we sold them all, now we're trying to think of another project."
Not content with his work with YMER&MALTA and Red Star, Bellion is also in the midst of creating his own creative agency and even his own lifestyle magazine.
"I'm going to create a platform, an agency, where you connect the dots between all these worlds.
"Art, design, sport, fashion, music, food, travel. It will be a mix between a creative agency, public relations, brand marketing strategy, image consulting and for people to dress.
"I come from the football world and I observe how they dress and I said to myself I think there is something to do there.
"The last four years I spent in Paris, the more your vision is particular, the more the world is small. I now meet people I never met in football.
"When you connect something like this, they all feed each other. So it can be everything. Educating the culture of football players, sometimes they don't have time.
"They go training from the academy. They've never really been to a museum. The mindset of a player is the same - training, sleep, training, sleep.
"In the city they will go to the same bar, same nightclub, same restaurant."
Valerie adds: "You don't have time as a footballer, you are always travelling.
"If you have somebody who is able to know what you could need, for David it is great, and they can open their eyes. It's a good exchange."
David wants to help change the image of footballers.
"There is a very imbalanced image of footballers. I had a famous French chef ask me if I could be like a personal stylist, if I could dress him when he goes on TV.
"Sometimes footballers have to wear certain brands, but outside no.
"In the movie industry they have stylists. I'm saying if you re-styled them maybe they could have a different type of image or contract (with better image rights).
"Some people are curious in football, they will buy something that is three or four times the price of this [pointing at a table], just because of the fame, the bling, not knowing.
"It's not a question of price. A footballer doesn't look at price. 'This watch has diamonds. I'll get this one.' But maybe that other watch is better."
Valerie says: "There is a certain culture in football and maybe this can open their eyes wider, you can give them the option to open their eyes a bit more.
"They are going to get more respect from outside. And people will not just take them as a footballer, but look at them as a human, someone with curiosity."
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Bellion ends with a final tip on how to appreciate a piece of art, in whatever form it may take.
"I always prefer to glorify or admire the creator," he says. "The product itself is beautiful, but the mind of the person is what is strong.
"The whole story is what makes it, when you understand it more. The beauty is not just the final point."