You’ve probably heard or read about the Jeremy Doku story at the World Cup by now. Manchester City’s Belgium footballer has been vilified for saying he wants to leave the US to fly back home to be with his wife when she gives birth to their first child next month.
If you are wondering what in the attention-seeking nonsense this world is coming to, you wouldn’t be the only one. Doku’s wife Shireen is due to have their baby in the second week of July. Doku will return home from the US to be with her, even if Belgium are still in the tournament, which would then be at the quarter-final stage.
Good. Any man worth his salt knows football comes a distant second to being at the birth of your children, whether it’s your first or not. It’s a moment that lives with you for ever. But Doku was taken apart over the weekend by the French daily L’Equipe channel with one of their female presenters, France Pierron, suggesting a father is “completely useless” at the time of their child’s birth.
“There are hundreds of footballers who would kill to be in your shoes. It might never happen again in your life,” she ranted. You’re living out a childhood dream, yet you’re going to walk away from it all to attend the birth of your child – a disgusting moment, if you’ll pardon the expression, where the dad is completely useless.”
Pierron later apologised for her comments but has reportedly been suspended. “I expressed a personal opinion, within the framework of a debate,” she wrote on X.
“These remarks commit only me and in no way reflect a collective position. I understand that they may have shocked, hurt, or wounded some of you, and I am sorry for that. My intention has never been to minimise the place or role of fathers with their partner and their child.”
The trouble is, her remarks had already given rise to a wave of criticism for Doku that he shouldn’t have had to experience at such an exciting time in his and his partner’s lives.
I can’t help wondering, either, whether Pierron would have bothered to apologise had things played out differently. We do now live in a world where the willingness to cross lines for social media notoriety is at its peak. And some social media users have had no problem sharing Pierron’s point of view.
Still, good on Doku for providing the emotional support a partner needs during what can be an emotional roller coaster for a mother and a father. Not every woman has the luxury of having her partner by her side. Not every father is able to be there due to circumstances beyond their control.
But who is anyone to tell Doku that he shouldn’t go? What’s not up for debate is that, God willing, he is on course to experience the most incredible moment of a man’s life. Only the immature, the selfish and the disconnected could suggest football at any level is more important.
Go and be there for your wife child, Jeremy. Embrace the moment. Hug your wife. Hold her hand. Be there when she sleeps. Be there when she wakes up. Even if you are completely useless. Just be there.
The football can keep. You’re 24. There’s every chance you’ll be back at a World Cup in four, maybe even eight years time. This first time will never come again. Your baby and your family matter far more. Congratulations.
