There is a black-and-white image on Mohed Altrad’s wall of a young Arab boy wearing a kufiyah headscarf. ‘That could be me,’ says the softly spoken immigrant from Syria. ‘But it isn’t.’
The grainy image is surrounded by technicolour photographs of modern-day France. ‘There are no pictures from my childhood,’ he adds. ‘I wish there were. I only have the pictures in my mind: sand, camels, muttons, a small carpet to sleep on.’
The Montpellier owner is talking through his pathway from Bedouin to billionaire. The troubled journey of a tribe child who grew up to become one of the most powerful men in world rugby.
Mohed Altrad is the charismatic billionaire owner of the French rugby team Montpellier
‘There were no places in the desert to record birth,’ he adds. ‘I do not know my age.
‘I didn’t live with my father. He raped my mother; this gave birth to my brother. He treated my brother very badly and he killed him. My mother didn’t stay with him but he raped her a second time, one year after; this is how I came. Then my mother also passed away very, very early.
‘There were no hospitals. Life in the desert was temporary. Sometimes you had rain and flowers grew… but they quickly disappear.
The billionaire owner had an extremely tough upbringing as a penniless Bedouin in Syria
‘I lived with my grandmother, neighbours and uncles. The Bedouin life was very simple. You sleep in a tent made of animal skin and all you need is some water, some bread and sometimes meat. My grandmother said, “Bedouin doesn’t need school because Bedouin becomes a shepherd”.’
Altrad defied his grandmother’s wish to become a shepherd. Sword fights and shoot-outs with other tribes were common, but Altrad survived to find an entrepreneurial spirit before his 10th birthday.
‘One day, this father who really neglected me — did everything nasty you can do — came and offered me a bicycle,’ he says. ‘A red bicycle. It was strange. I never really understood why he did but I was very poor, so I took it. I had no money for pencils, books, paper or shoes so I created a small business renting out my bicycle.
Altrad escaped poverty in a life which has been scripted like a Hollywood blockbuster
‘This was my first business. School was how I got away.’
Leap forward 60 years or so and Altrad now sits in his estate in the south of France.
His life has been scripted like a Hollywood movie. He emigrated to France, went to university and made his fortune in scaffolding. Today he owns a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, an aeroplane and — with five children — has rugby posts in his garden. ‘I am two people now,’ he says. ‘The one you see here and the one who still thinks in Arabic.’
Conversation moves between meeting Barack Obama, discrimination in business — ‘auditors dug into my accounts more than normal people’ — and his tunnel vision to shake up the rugby world. Altrad’s rugby revolution starts at home, where he rescued Montpellier’s near-bankrupt club in 2011.
The charismatic Altrad gives an exclusive interview to Mail on Sunday reporter Nik Simon
He is an aggressive purveyor of free-market economics and, using the clout of his chequebook, has created a star-studded squad including Louis Picamoles, Ruan Pienaar and All Black Aaron Cruden.
‘I am not a prophet but rugby needs new people to disturb the existence,’ he says. ‘I will fight.
‘We signed Aaron Cruden because he proved something with the All Blacks. We offered him €800,000 [£715,000] a year. His agent told me Bristol had offered more than €1million, yet he chose to join us.
Altrad tells the Mail on Sunday: ‘I’m not a prophet but the game of rugby has to be shaken up’
‘Still people ask, “Why don’t you recruit a French No10?” I say, “Which top-class French No10?”
‘In a perfect model, I would have 15 French players starting for Montpellier but there is no choice. If you want good players, you must train them. We have 450,000 amateur players in France but nobody is taking care of them. My proposal is to fund a foundation for these players.
‘There are presidents, vice-presidents — former players without business experience — who are very comfortable. AIG pay the All Blacks £13m, O2 pay England £11m, yet nobody in France said they need a sponsor for the national jersey? I am negotiating €7m or €8m, €5m towards the foundation.’
Altrad believes rugby forbids investment: ‘PSG’s budget is €700m, our salary cap is €10m’
Altrad views rugby as a white-dominated sport. He contrasts it to French football, namechecking influential immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, but is unapologetic for a football-like rise in wage bills. This, coming from a man who survived on €25 a month when he moved to France in the Sixties.
‘The budget of Paris Saint- Germain is €700m,’ he says. ‘Our salary cap is €10m. Why would you forbid investors from putting in money? It’s contradictory with the basic rules of business. The more stars you have in the clubs, the more you generate in television rights and ticket sales.
‘My business sells scaffolding, concrete mixers, wheelbarrows.
‘Rugby must sell a spectacle, so you need to invest and find the right formula. The one who has less money has to make more money. Our previous coach, Jake White, had a special way of playing: hit and destroy. Every week we had criticism. We lost a lot of followers. Now Vern Cotter is here and he is changing that.’
Altad has been criticised for his arrangement with French rugby president Bernard Laporte
Hit and destroy could also describe Altrad’s approach to business dealings.
Concerns were raised about his financial arrangement with French rugby federation (FFR) president Bernard Laporte. Investigations were launched and he was accused of acting unethically. Altrad’s response? ‘A handful of prejudiced imbeciles.’ He has no fear of the old order and his plan extends beyond the south of France.
Challenging the status quo, he sponsors the home-town club of Georgian prop Mikheil Nariashvili and is backing the campaign to open up the Six Nations.
‘Why are Georgia not in the Six Nations?’ he asks. ‘Money. It is a poor country which has always been oppressed by Russia. I sponsor the national team, local club of our prop and promised to do everything I can. Rugby is not very multicultural. Donald Trump is not so multicultural.’
Altad sponsors the Georgian home-town club of Montpellier prop Mikheil Nariashvili
There have also been attempts to spread the Altrad influence to England. The UK market has become the biggest branch of Altrad’s business and his rugby vision has followed.
He made a bid to buy Gloucester last season — with a string of South African signings lined up — but his proposal was rejected by the governing body, in the face of opposition from West Country rivals.
‘With Gloucester, the idea was to create a synergy between two countries,’ he says. ‘The idea was to create a hybrid pitch, invest in the academy, commit £10m and win the Premiership. I wanted to sign Jan Serfontein, Pat Lambie and Johan Goosen.
‘I was told there was a very big resistance from Bath. They didn’t want to have somebody else nearby. Their owner, Bruce Craig, is an influential person. It’s a pity.’
The thing with Bedouins is they never stop moving. So where else could Altrad’s journey take him?
‘I would like to take rugby to Syria but I don’t know if it’ll be possible,’ he says. ‘You have the Assad regime, the Russians, Al Qaeda and everything is destroyed. Every trace. It makes me sad.’
Although, you suspect nothing and no one will stop the young boy in the headscarf.