page_title: Lilian Thuram
section_title: Political engagement
hierarchical_section_title: Lilian Thuram / Political engagement
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Lilian Thuram et Karine Le Marchand à la manifestation en faveur du mariage homosexuel en France, Paris, France, 27 janvier 2013 Español: Lilian Thuram y Karine Le Marchand a la manifestación de apoyo al proyecto de ley abriendo en Francia el derecho de casarse a las parejas homosexuales, Paris, France, 27 de enero del 2013 English: Lilian Thuram and Karine Le Marchand at the Demonstration in favour of same-sex marriage in France, Paris, France, January 27, 2013
context_page_description: Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien is a French retired professional football defender and the most capped player in the history of the France national team with 142 appearances between 1994 and 2008.
  Thuram played at the top flight in France, Italy and Spain for over 15 seasons, including ten in Serie A with both Parma and Juventus. With France, Thuram was a key player for the team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, his side also won UEFA Euro 2000, and was in the runner-up squad for the 2006 World Cup. A quick, powerful and versatile player, he was capable of playing both as a centre-back or as a right-back, and was competent both offensively and defensively. Despite his physical and aggressive playing style, Thuram has been described as a "studious" figure off the pitch; in 2010, he became a UNICEF ambassador, and has stood out for his initiatives to fight against racism.
context_section_description: Beyond his football career, Thuram has always shown political engagement, and has frequently spoken out against racism. In such, during the French riots in November 2005, Thuram took a position against Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of the conservative political party (and future president) UMP and then Minister of the Interior. Thuram was opposed to the verbal attacks against young people that the then-Minister made when he talked about the "scum", and he said that Nicolas Sarkozy never lived in a "banlieue", areas of low-income housing surrounding French cities.
  On 6 September 2006, Thuram sparked controversy when he invited 80 people, who were expelled by French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy from a flat where they lived illegally, to the football match between France and Italy. He has also engaged in campaigns that favour the Catalan language in Northern Catalonia.
  In November 2011, Thuram curated an exhibition at the Musée du quai Branly entitled "Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage". It examined the human zoos that traced the practice of using colonial subjects as exhibits in zoos and freak shows. The material in the exhibition runs from the parade of Brazil's Tupinamba "savages" for the royal entrance of King Henry II of France in 1550 in Rouen, to the last "living spectacle" of Congo villagers exhibited in Brussels in 1958.
  In January 2013, Thuram took part in a march through Paris by supporters of the Ayrault government's plan to legalise same-sex marriage. He had previously explained that he supported same-sex marriage in the name of equal rights (comparing the denial of equality for homosexuals to the denial of equal rights for women and for black people in earlier periods of history), and in the name of France's secular principles (laïcité), rejecting religious arguments against civil marriage. He also expressed support for the right of same-sex couples to adopt children.
caption: Thuram on a 2013 march through Paris by supporters of same-sex marriage in France.
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