The sun of a beautiful early spring afternoon. The Atlantic Ocean of what has become its Basque Country rippling a few meters below. All his friends and family gathered around him. But in the middle, Federico Martin Aramburu is no more. “Today, you still manage to do what you loved the most. Bring together the people you love and the people who love you. Except that this Fede moment, we had never imagined it like this, ”says the strangled voice of Roger Aguerre, a very close to the former rugby player, at the microphone of the Sainte-Eugénie church in Biarritz.
A week earlier, the Argentinian lost his life in the early morning of the Latin Quarter in Paris. An altercation in a bar, bullets flying a few minutes later, and the man, the dad, the ex-athlete is gone. Since then, the main suspect has been arrested in Hungary, while his alleged accomplice and his present girlfriend have been indicted and imprisoned.
“We mourn our friend Fede and the brutality of his death adds to our pain,” slips Don Arnaud, priest and family friend in charge of the funeral of the former player, murdered at 42 years old. Faced with the man of the Church: his parents, his wife Maria, his two daughters Trinidad and Justina, a very wide range of French rugby personalities, met during his rich career, and his buddies from the oval ball and elsewhere. Outside, around 1,000 people, some with Basque flags, follow the ceremony on the giant screen installed in the square. And thousands of kilometers away, in his native country, Argentines who gather while following his funeral, broadcast on YouTube, by his former club Biarritz Olympique, with whom he won the Top 14 in 2006 before become the president of his supporters club.
“I love you Faith”
It was also his relatives from this great BO team who carried his coffin: Shaun Hegarty, present at his side in Paris on the morning of the tragedy, Manuel Carizza, Nicolas Brusque or even his former captain Thomas Lievremont. It was he who, his face marked by the loss of his former partner, accompanied Federico Martin Aramburu’s mother, Cecilia, in her poignant speech on peace and non-violence.
Sad and warm at the same time, a last word that has come back constantly to describe this father of three children, lover of wine and good food, in all the tributes for a week. “You know Fede, in the middle of the Argentinian flag there is a sun. You are the sun of us all, underlines Roger Aguerre. Te quiero Fede (I love you Fede). »
Nearly two hours of ceremony, held in both Spanish and French and interspersed with Basque songs. And at the end, loud applause, bringing together more than 1,500 people. First in the church. Then on the forecourt, where the eyes reddened more when the coffin was taken out into the open air. Federico Martin Aramburu left unfairly. It was a day to enjoy a barbecue in the sun, to tell about this France-England that he had to go to see or just to put the world to rights. But not to say goodbye to a friend.