Former French ski standout Gardent targets an NFL career

Former French ski standout Gardent targets an NFL career{mosimage}DUESSELDORF, Germany – Former French teenage skiing star Philippe Gardent, who competed at the circuit just below the World Cup, made NFL Europe history on Thursday when he became the first non-American to win a major award — sharing the season defensive MVP honors.

The 27-year-old Gardent stumbled across football at a pickup game in the Alps nine years ago and switched sports. His mother had told him that skiing was killing the family budget.

”I looked at what I could do. I was pretty good, but it was difficult,” Gardent said. ”The French skiing federation is kind of poor.”

Now Gardent is dreaming of the NFL after a league-high 70 tackles for the Cologne Centurions. Although the linebacker had been around the league for four years, this was his first full season.

”Oh yeah, oh yeah, when I reached NFL Europe that was like the NFL for a guy like me,” Gardent said. ”Now I want to taste the next level, training camp at least.”

He may get his wish, since eight NFL teams will be assigned a national at training camp.

But his age may hurt his chances of going to a big-league club, despite standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 235 pounds.

He also once helped France to 12th place at the bobsledding junior world championships.

The NFL hopes to produce a Yao Ming (China) or a Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) to give the sport the same international appeal the NBA enjoys.

At the very least, it wants to produce local stars in a European league dominated by American former college standouts or NFL projects.

”That’s something we want to do in the short term,” said Pete Abitante, senior director for public affairs for the NFL. ”A player like that becomes a catalyst for the development of the league.”

Gardent came out of the league’s youth program on the continent, unlike other Europeans in the NFL who learned the sport at American high schools or colleges. But he doesn’t much care about the European angle.

”I just want to be good player,” he said. ”On the field, American, French, it doesn’t make any difference.”

Gardent, who has a reputation as a team leader, now has no trouble being accepted by his American teammates on the Centurions.

”Maybe the other years, because I didn’t speak English,” Gardent said. ”But now I speak English and I am a good player.”

– The Associated Press