‘Frankenstein’, the kid everyone laughed at who ended up with the world at his feet

When you see a football star spending money without thinking twice, living a life of controversy and luxury, it’s hard to imagine the stories that exist behind the many cameras placed on them by today’s society.

It’s the same society that isolated Ribery for his scars, which mark his survival after a dramatic accident at just two years of age. Brought up in a convent after being abandoned by his biological parents, the Frenchman had a complicated childhood.

His appearance was at the root of vicious jibes by friends and classmates, who would call him ‘Frankenstein’. School was hell for a little boy who only found happiness with the ball at his feet. The beautiful game became his lifejacket in the inferno that surrounded him.

“From when I was a young boy, they made jokes about me and I would run and cry in the corner. But that’s helped me in life. I’ve suffered because of this scar, but it’s also made me stronger. If you don’t have a strong head, you’re a dead man walking. It was important for me to do it all by myself, and it made me stronger,” the Bayern star explained in an interview.

Ribery recalls that he never opted for surgery to get rid of the look of his scars. They’re part of his life, marking the suffering he went through to get where he is now. He worked as a bricklayer to get some money together whilst he made inroads in the world of football.

As he developed, he put bricklaying to one side and focussed on a sport in which he never stopped going. Galatasary placed faith in the emerging French talent some whispered about, and from there, his rise was meteoric: Marseille, a brilliant World Cup, and signing for Bayern Munich.

Since 2006, he’s stayed in the elite, even challenging for a Balon d’Or along the way. All his success has come with his wife at his side, who helped him to calm down after a turbulent childhood, and led him down the road of religion. Ribery would change his name after converting to Islam, becoming Bilal Yusuf Mohammed.

Together, they they cleaned up the act of the kid that everyone laughed at. He became the man everyone ended up loving when they stopped looking at his ‘Frankenstein’ scars and started praising his footballing talent, which shone in Europe and across the world.

Ribery’s story is one of overcoming, which sheds a light on childhood cruelty. It’s a living example to all those grow up terrified by bullying, and proof that football can at least sometimes be therapy for so much that is wrong with our society.