How an ex-Man Utd player is making Red Star France's most cultural club

Bellion’s role at Red Star started almost immediately after he retired from playing, and is relatively unique in the footballing world. “As soon as I gave up my football career, I told the chairman that I wanted to be a creative director and brand manager,” Bellion tells GOAL. “Of course, we had previously had many conversations about how to build bridges between football and global culture, involving art, photography, music, food, cinematography, architecture and anything that could be involved in Red Star.”

The connection between Bellion and Red Star came, in part, due to the club’s president. Patrice Haddad is a film and advert producer who has worked with some of the leading directors and is known for his art collection. “In terms of art and image knowledge, maybe only Francois Pinault who owns Rennes and Kering, and our chairman Patrice Haddad, are the chairmen that know what it means,” Bellion adds. “It’s important to mention it so readers and fans can understand why we know how to build culture through our historical community.”

Bellion describes Red Star as “more than football,” and that can be seen through his approach to the club which covers everything from collaborations to the team’s progress. As well as moving the club into more cultural spheres, the Red Star management is also focused on the team’s footballing development.

“Our ambition at Red Star is to trigger emotions on and off the pitch,” Bellion explains. “We have a new stadium coming soon with a very interesting economic model that will have a key role in the neighbourhood. It will have a 12,000 seat capacity in the middle of the city centre. We are also working hard to have a very good football academy as there are so many talents coming from Paris and its suburbs. To build a good academy, it also needs to have good sporting results from the pro team.”

“Our ambition is to never change. We want to be where nobody expects us.” For Bellion, these new developments continue to build on the club’s existing legacy and identity, which has developed due to its political and community actions over its 125 year history. 

“We have phenomenal supporters with a very strong mindset, they’re socially engaged with a strong voice and never sing one vulgar word in their chants,” Bellion says of the Red Star community. “They strongly support refugees, feminists, antihomophobics and are antifascist like the whole club.” It was this identity that made Bellion want to work with Red Star. “When I quit my career and saw all of this incredible and beautiful history, I thought immediately in my heart about the romantic pop football club.”

Community is also an important part of the club’s cultural activities, most importantly through the Red Star Lab, founded by chairman Haddad to educate young people through football and cultural workshops. “Our goal with the lab is “work the body, feed the mind,” Bellion continues. “We want great women and men before great footballers. Culture can only help in performance and we also want our youth to understand that there are other things in life than football. We taught the kids to make their own football boots and play with them, learn about street art, fashion upcycling, radio commentary, photography, architecture and many other projects. We will always keep digging for new talents in photography, film, art, music, food, fashion and everything that inspires us and give it back to our community.”

The latest evolution of Red Star’s identity is its collaboration with Lack of Guidance. The Dutch brand has often referenced football culture and kits through its collections, but this is the first time it has designed match-ready kits. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve had an obsession with football kits,” says co-founder Akaar Amin. “So this project was like a dream come true, it feels like I added another layer to my lifelong obsession.”

The kit itself is partly inspired by another Kappa design, and the AS Roma kits worn by Gabriel Batistuta in the early 2000s. “He was my first idol in football,” Amin continues. “Our aim was to create something classic and authentic, yet modern enough to stand the test of time.”

Lack of Guidance isn't the first brand to work with Red Star – the 2021/22 kits were designed by Daily Paper – and the club always looks for shared values with its collaborations. “We both attentively observe and adapt ourselves to society and try our best to reinterpret our feelings in the best way possible and give back to our community, one way or another,” Bellion says. 

“As well as selling jerseys, match tickets, etc. we always give back in many ways,” continues Bellion. “Lack of Guidance is the same. They can show a fantastic collection to buy and can  also speak about racism in a project with Naomi Accardi. We do this for the culture first then the economic model follows naturally.”

While the partnership so far has introduced the home and away shirts for the upcoming season, Bellion sees this as just the beginning of the collaboration. “When we think of Red Star and Lack of Guidance, we see the past, present and future,” he says, pointing to a wider project that the club and its new collaborators are embarking on together.

“These home and away kits are the beginning of a programme called CULTE, and each letter from the word will be a social project during the season,” Bellion concludes. “It’s C for character, U for unity, L for loyalty, T for talent and E for education. And maybe another cool project… who knows?”