Business Daily Meets: Mathieu Flamini
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
International footballer Mathieu Flamini started a biotech company when he was still a professional player. Speaking to Sam Fenwick, Flamini reveals what he learnt from top football managers and how that knowledge has helped him perform in the boardroom.
The former Arsenal, AC Milan and Olympique de Marseille player tells us he grew up by the sea and constantly seeing plastic washed up on the shore made him aware of sustainability and climate change. He says as a youngster he had two ambitions in life, to play professional football and become an environmentalist.
In 2008, while still playing top flight football, Flamini co-founded, GFBiochemicals. It produces a chemical called levulinic acid which can be used to replace oil in a range of household products. The industry is worth billions of dollars.
Producer / presenter: Sam Fenwick Image: Mathieu Flamini playing for Arsenal in 2016; Credit: Getty
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My Indian Life is back for season three, the podcast that explores what it means to be young and Indian in the 21st century. |
| 0:07.2 | With guests from all walks of life. |
| 0:09.2 | Singing is a part of storytelling for me. |
| 0:11.2 | I need to tell my story to the world. |
| 0:12.8 | And from all across this huge country. |
| 0:15.1 | So as a tribe, we are not mere part of nature, but we are nature. Each for the story to tell. |
| 0:21.4 | Winning the gold medal in Paralympics was a dream. That's Kalki presents My Indian Life from |
| 0:26.2 | the BBC World Service. Just search for My Indian Life wherever you found this podcast. |
| 0:33.6 | This is Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Sam Fenwick. |
| 0:39.4 | As part of our ongoing coverage of the men's 2022 football World Cup finals underway in Qatar, |
| 0:45.8 | today we speak to a former professional footballer turned environmental entrepreneur. |
| 0:50.6 | I've learned to perform under pressure in my football career and this is something I've |
| 0:55.5 | also used in my young life of entrepreneur. Matier Flamini played for the French side Marseilles, |
| 1:02.5 | in Italy for A.C. Milan and in the English Premier League under Arson Venger's Arsenal. |
| 1:14.8 | Oh! Oh! Vangas Arsenal. I feel very privileged because I had the chance to play under Arsene. |
| 1:21.1 | Everybody knows Arsene as a visionary person, which always like to project himself. |
| 1:26.3 | I would say he had a massive impact in my life |
| 1:28.3 | as a human being. Matia Flamini is the CEO of a biochemical company. He's one of the first |
| 1:35.4 | footballers to enter into a market worth billions of dollars. He tells us that what he learned on |
| 1:41.4 | the football pitch has helped shape how he runs his business |
| 1:45.0 | today. |
| 1:49.7 | I grew up in the south of France in Marseille, which is a city on the sea. |
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