A different kind of goal
Newcastle’s Habib Beye lives a privileged life and knows it. He talks to Kathryn Armstrong about his plans to put his high profile to good use with the launch of a charity trust in Africa.
Habib Beye Habib Beye, by his own admission, lives a charmed life. He is surrounded by beautiful things for much of the time. Eva his model girlfriend. Aliya and Noah, their gorgeous children for starters. Their home is a newly built and architecturally stunning place in the exclusive Darras Hall (more of which later) and his best plaything, a car he dreamt of owning as a small child, is parked in the spacious garage.
All of which tick the boxes for a high-earning football player the Newcastle defender is. But that’s where the conventional image ends. Habib takes none if it for granted and is about to embark on a project that is all about sharing his good fortune and ultimately he hopes, making a difference to thousands of lives.
It’s about more than adding a name and a signature to a good cause. Habib plans to launch a football academy in Senegal, West Africa. His father is from the country and Habib, who has dual Senegal and French nationality, plays for the national team.
Most of the country is desperately poor and it’s Habib’s intention to support the academy and create jobs with the launch of a business to boost the production and export of mangoes. He is passionate about mangoes.
“We have the best mangoes in the world,” he playfully proclaims in his well-spoken English with a strong French accent.
Eva, who is from Martinique, begs to differ. The aim is to use Habib’s profile to launch the academy and boost his beloved sport in the country. He knows too, though, that enterprise – a share of the profits from the mango business – is the way to help make it happen.
The couple are telling us all this in an amazing room at the front of their Darras Hall home. The newly-built property was almost finished when they first cast eyes on it. It was love at first sight.
From the outside you view a round building with double-height windows. There’s a long corridor connecting the house to another circular two-storey building at the back. From above I guess you’re talking about the shape of a dog’s bone – hardly an architectural term but accurate nonetheless.
“We liked it as soon as we saw it and knew that we would be able to add touches to it that we wanted,” says Eva.
This main room at the front of the property has a conical roof with striking oak beams on the double-height ceiling. There’s a gallery above where Habib has his computer and office space. In the room itself there’s a grand piano – on which Eva has been playing nursery rhymes to three-year-old Aliya.
Habib admits he’s a gadget guy. He’s had lights installed along all the skirting boards in the house and these can be programmed in different colours and sequences. The effect – outdoors and in – is magical.
A corridor leads to the open-plan kitchen where Aliya is watching Dora the Explorer in French on her laptop at the worktop. There are huge plasma TVs everywhere.
The room leads on to what they call their family room. Again it is circular and the couple have had a sofa made to curve around the room in front of yet another TV.
“This is where we chill out,” says Eva. It is, like the rest of the property, achingly stylish. The colour scheme is rich brown tones and even a bit of snakeskin – a lot less tacky than it sounds – and the walls are covered with a gritty, slightly sparkly, textured paper.
Downstairs – next to the garage with THAT car – is Habib’s playroom. There are two rooms and a hallway – with a dartboard on which team-mate Steve Harper has been teaching Habib the game.
A movie room has a huge screen on one wall, alongside a wall of DVDs and computer games. There’s a giant sofa there too. This is where Habib hides himself for a while to unwind if he’s had a bad game, he says.
The room alongside is filled with a pool table, framed football shirts and sports mementoes – as well as a beer-filled fridge. Is it his tipple?
“No, the beer is for my agent Gary,” he jokes.
Their home is a place for socialising – especially with their good friends from the world of football and outside. Their choice of property reflects that. They love using the dramatic upstairs front lounge for parties and people. It’s a long way in terms of miles and style from their last home. Habib’s last club was Marseille and there home was a country property close to the Provencal city of Aix en Provence.
“With that house you live outside not indoors. It was an old French villa with a pool and large garden. You spend much time outdoors. Here it is not the same,” he says with a grin.
Moving to England he was warned that ‘people were cold’. Not the case at all agree Eva and Habib. They’ve been moved by the kindness of people since their arrival in the North East and love the city and its surroundings.
Eva studied English at Newcastle University when she arrived here, gaining a diploma. She is fluent and their daughter is now starting to speak English too.
Their little boy Noah is only seven months and during the day they have a nanny. Family life means that they are mostly home-based but they enjoy a trip to Malmaison on the Quayside or Spago in Jesmond.
Eva was a model when she met Habib in Paris ten years ago. She wowed him dressed as a bride on the catwalk – he laughs when he tries to explain how he hated her modelling lingerie on the catwalk though.
Two children down the line and she looks stunning with an enviable figure and mile-high legs. Her look is elegant and very un-WAG. French chic at its best. Today she’s wearing black trousers and a simple grey polo neck sweater with some serious heels.
“I like Zara and Harvey Nichols for clothes – and Jude and Djibril Cisse’s new clothes shop in Newcastle – Tag is one of my favourite labels,” says Eva.
They’re planning a fashion show as one of the launch events for the new charity and Eva talks of her hopes that she might take to the catwalk again for that. She would also like to get modelling work in the region but says there’s not a lot of opportunity in the region.
Habib is a Dolce and Gabbana junkie. Clothed head to foot in the label. He regularly goes on a spree in Paris where Eva says he can spend a day in the D&G store!
And though this in many ways is part and parcel of a footballer’s life Habib is always mindful of his good fortune and is keen to play down his enviable lifestyle.
He travels to Senegal most years to see close relatives there and you sense he sees his charity project as a duty to share what he has been lucky enough to receive.
“In Africa there are lots of young people who are very poor. They play football in their bare feet because they cannot afford to buy boots. They have no football strips or pitches. I would like to start a foundation where people could learn to play football but it would also be a school where they could be educated.
“I have a profile and I think I should use that profile for good for that country. The idea is that by setting up a business to export mangoes we could start an enterprise to help people earn wages as well as supporting the football academy. The whole thing would be self-sufficient.
“Football is incredibly important in Senegal but unlike Britain there is not the money in the game because it is not earned from television rights as it is here.
“I feel strongly that I want to give something back to my country – something to do with football but which serves a wider need.”
Just in case you thought we had forgotten, the car is a magnificent black Ferrari F340. Habib has achieved one dream in his life, let’s hope he is as successful with his new one.
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