Le Ballon series: issue II - Bled FC

On nss sports, we’ve already told you - more than once - about Le Ballon, the coolest football league in the universe. Born as a bar to watch football games and then turned into a Meltin’ Pot for creatives, artists, and fashion-minded people - all with the passion for football, of course - and in the end transformed into an amateur league, with its real strength, its teams. For some time we’ve started to show you one by one because every team has its story, its inspiration and its way to live and feel Le Ballon’s football. Some of them were born as football teams, maybe from people that already knew each other, while others - like the one we meet today - are different realities that still likes to kick some footballs.

We have talked with Stéphane Nam Kunn, founder and captain of Bled FC. We asked him some questions, to understand who compose his team and which is their vision of Le Ballon and football in general.

Let’s start with something very easy: what’s the reason behind the name Bled, and what meaning has for you guys? (For all we know: Bled is a city in Slovenia).

It’s funny, many people think we are based in Slovenia but not at all, we are from Paris. In French, the word Bled means many things, from the Arabic language, the Bled is "the country, the fields". For immigrants, it’s the country or city of origin. In French slang, Bled is a small village, a lost place.

Easy question, pt II: what about your logo, it’s just a simple design choice or it represents something more specific?

Inspired by the form of the Google Map marker, because we come from everywhere. Quite simply.

What’s the story behind the birth of Bled? It was something different before, or it has born as we see it today? Did you guys know each other before becoming teammates? (Lots of questions, actually).

When I imagined Bled FC in 2013, it was not to create a simple football team. Firstly my goal was to share my cultural heritage through football in a creative way. I have Vietnamese parents, so my Bled is Vietnam and it’s important for me to highlight my roots. Today, Bled FC is a creative platform that explores the diversity of football all over the world.

One of your mottos is “We are footballers, explorers, creatives”. Which role do you feel and embrace the most? Being part of Le Ballon league is just something more, or it’s the core of Bled’s activities?

Bled FC is different compared to the other teams of Le Ballon. Bled FC was not created for participate to the league, we exist for longer. My main activity is to create content for brands, to explore the world, to tell unique stories of unsung heroes and to develop Bled FC as a creative club/brand.

Bled’s brand seems to be growing strong. What are your dreams for its future?

I hope to continue to explore football all over the world. I will be in Seoul next week, will meet my friend Shinjae from Nivelcrack, a street/football brand.

In your skills, you name football skills and nutmegs… Are you guys that kind of Neymar-inspired team? With lots of dribbling, skills and maybe some simulations?

We wind a stadium into frenzy, thanks to our amazing performances on the green rectangle but unfortunately, our capabilities are more visible to other playgrounds. If I have to compare Bled FC to a team, definitely the French team, because it's composed of players from different cultures, bleds, and origins. And because we can be the best one day and beat any team, and become the worst team ever the day after.

Throughout your social channels, you manage to update all your followers about your activities and the “Bled Culture”. What are the “mission” and the “vision” embodied by Bled culture?

Bled FC is not only about football as I said above. Most importantly, it's to explore the diversity of culture through football, to share football stories from amateurs, supporters and other unsung actors, to know the place of football for them into the everyday life.

What’s your inspiration for all the creations related to the Bled brand? According to your Instagram account, one of these is Nowhere Fc.

Yes, when I created Bled FC, there are not many creative amateur clubs like today. Nowhere is a big inspiration for me, like are Chinatown FC, The Ringleaders, The Soho Warriors. Much important for me is to differentiate from other clubs and try to propose something new.

Last but not least, Bled is currently middle-ranked in Le Ballon’s standings. What are your expectations for this season? Avoid the relegation (even if there’s not a real one), or aim to the European qualification? Please don’t be mad at us, but judging by the last two seasons, we’d say the first one.

Don't worry. This season, we have a good team, many new players joined us who bring a more technical touch to the team, we started well but at the moment we are not very good. I hope we will win the 2 last games to move up the ranking and to be rank well for the playoffs.