2021 Annual and Sustainable Performance Report

“I started playing football in my home town of Arles, like a lot of kids, and it really took me places. I moved to clubs all over France before signing a professional contract with Nîmes Olympiques in 2013.”

Samir has achieved his goal, and as a center forward, he knows how to score them. But the career of an elite footballer is short lived. “As a professional, I made a good living but not enough to retire quite so young.”

Playing amateur football again in the Fos Division d’Honneur, he came across Sport Society. This association, which has partnerships with companies including Arkema, supports athletes in navigating a smooth transition out of professional sport. “Sport trains us without discrimination and teaches strong values such as solidarity and the drive to achieve, which fit in well with corporate expectations”, says James Strauss, former footballer and now one of the association’s managers, who suggested to Samir that he train as an operator in the chemicals sector. “I discussed it with other athletes who’d gone down this road and they told me all about the job and the opportunities for progression, and convinced me to do a Certificate of Professional Qualification (CQP) through vocational training at the TotalEnergies Oleum Center in Martigues. Life opens the doors that we least expect!”, says Samir, now 34 years old and married with two children, who is now employed as an Operator on a permanent contract at the Arkema plant.

“It’s a complete U-turn, but there is some common ground with football: you have to work together to win, and in the factory, if you don’t all head in the same direction, you don’t meet your production goals.”

Samir’s colleagues know all about his unusual journey. “I can talk about what I used to do, it’s easy, they love football. And when I saw that Arkema had sponsored the women’s Division 1, I thought that was fantastic. For me, both in the factory and on the field, it’s the quality of human relations and the richness of our differences that bring us closer together.”