Philippe Oddou would have been content with being a businessman. Born in Paris in 1972, he grew up in the 16th arrondissement with his father, a company director - he founded the CSA polling institute - and a mother, a teacher, and a school principal. "I'd never set foot in a suburb," he admits when reflecting on his middle-class childhood. But his parents are no less outward-looking: his mother is involved in various causes, most notably supporting young people with Down's syndrome; his father recruits people with no qualifications. Philippe is not always very welcoming when he invites these people to the house. "I didn't realize how generous they were until much later," he says.

A SOCCER AND TENNIS FANATIC WITH LITTLE INTEREST IN BUSINESS

After an HEC preparatory course in Paris, he entered EM Lyon. His first job took him to L'Oréal in Austria, his second to Paribas in Brussels, and then to Lyon. But he was bored stiff. "I wasn't interested in business," he recalls.

Sport, on the other hand, fascinated him. It was a soccer teacher who first sparked his love. "I remember the impatience, the excitement, the euphoria on match nights. As a student on a trip to India, he played volleyball every evening with youngsters from a village in Tamil Nadu. "The pitch didn't look like much, but the magic of sport was there, and we played joyfully." He leaves convinced that such encounters have a positive impact on physical well-being. Later, while on VIE, the coach of the Austrian Davis Cup team, who had become a friend, introduced him to tennis. These were all steps that shaped him more than his professional experiences.

Everything changed in 1997. "One depressed evening, I heard Yannick Noah talking on 7 sur 7 about his difficulties in launching his Fête le Mur association, which aimed to create tennis courts in disadvantaged neighborhoods. His speech touched my heart. There are some tough neighborhoods in Lyon, where I live, so I'm ready to get involved voluntarily. And Noah is my tennis idol!

"SPORT IS NOT ENOUGH"

He contacted him, and the feeling took hold. A few months later, the first center opened in Vaulx-en-Velin, where riots had broken out two years prior. "I worked at Paribas during the week and was on the ground at weekends. This "exhilarating" experience enabled him to discover the working-class suburbs and "the incredible young people" who live there. It also made him want to act further. "I realized that sport wasn't enough. Integration had to come through employment.

During his business studies, Philippe was impressed by the speech of their class sponsor, Henri Lachmann—then chairman of the Strafor Facom metalworking group—who called on students to commit themselves. He wrote to him to explain his project for an association combining sport and integration. The businessman was sold: "He encouraged me to resign and assured me he would be my first supporter.

GENEROSITY AND A RESULTS-ORIENTED CULTURE

He returned to EM Lyon for six months to follow a business creation program. "I needed to put the tools of business to work for the cause. For generosity to be effective, it needs to be combined with a results-oriented culture and professional organization," he says, for the young beneficiaries and corporate partners, whose donations represent 75% of the association's resources.

Once the business plan had been drawn up, he knocked on the doors of local authorities. The response was positive. Sport dans la Ville was born in 1998 and co-founded by Philippe Oddou and Nicolas Eschermann, former classmate turned financier. The first basketball center opened its doors the following year in Vaulx-en-Velin, followed by a second in La Duchère.

The association now has 45 such centers (with a further 30 due to open by 2024) in 25 French towns, but that's not even the most impressive part. Sport dans la Ville attracts young people by offering them free soccer and basketball lessons from the age of six. It then goes on to support them with a host of programs designed to facilitate their integration from childhood - as with Apprenti'Bus, which helps them learn to read, write and speak - to adulthood - with Job dans la Ville and Entrepreneurs dans la Ville, which support job-seeking and professional projects. 

DEMAIN, SUPPORTING THE L DANS LA VILLE PROGRAM

More cross-functional, L dans la Ville aims to provide specific support for girls, who are more likely to be sidelined than boys. This support involves dedicated sports and cultural activities, educational and professional help, the discovery of sectors and professions in search of feminization, and meetings with women from atypical backgrounds who can serve as role models. DEMAIN is supporting this program with 300,000 euros. In 2019, 2,000 girls benefited from this program.

Today, twenty years after the initiative's start, how does Philippe see the evolution of the suburbs where he works? "It's not getting any worse, but it's not getting any better either," he says realistically. He has to face the reality of the existing unemployment crisis- the rate among young people is as high as 40% in some neighborhoods, far from the national average of 18% - but also violence, social misery, and drug trafficking. "Some young people fail and end up on the wrong side of the tracks. You have to have the faith and desire to keep going."

Against all odds, he remains persistent. "When born in a tough neighborhood, you start from a much lower base. I've received more, so my commitment to rectifying this injustice comes naturally."