Lloris struggling as Spurs No2

Hugo Lloris admits he is struggling to accept the idea that Andre Villas-Boas does not consider him as Tottenham Hotspur's No1 goalkeeper. Lloris signed from Lyon for £8million on transfer deadline day, but he has only started one Premier League game so far, with Villas-Boas preferring to use the Frenchman in the UEFA Europa League. The Spurs manager has opted to stick with 41-year-old Brad Friedel in the club's biggest games - a decision that has angered France coach Didier Deschamps, who decided to stick with Lloris as his captain following his appointment after UEFA EURO 2012. Lloris has brushed off speculation that he is unhappy at playing second fiddle to Friedel in the past, but has now suggested that he is not content with the Tottenham manager's rotation system. "I'm training, I do the maximum, and the coach made his choice," Lloris told L'Equipe after France's 2-1 win over Italy. "It is difficult to accept. It is a little hard. You will have to ask the coach. I just stay professional." Sweden 1958 went down in history as the moment when Brazil finally shed its so-called ‘mongrel complex’, the sense of inferiority it felt in comparison to European football. Is the same thing happening now with Brazilian cuisine? We’re taking that first step now, and there’s no question that Brazilian chefs are rejecting the idea of mimicking  other styles of cooking. But the area where I think food and football really have something in common is social inclusion. No other sport involves the disadvantaged quite like football, and cooking has the selfsame potential. Take my right-hand man, who’s a guy who didn’t do that well at school, while most of the people who work for me are migrants from the north-east who had no idea what they were going to do when they came to Sao Paulo. Some of them can now deal with customers in English. That just shows you what this profession can do for people. I’ve been amazed by that side of cooking , where you can have a kid who studied at Le Cordon Bleu, whose father paid for him to go to a good school, and standing right next to him is a kitchen porter who’s turned his hand to cooking. And there in the kitchen, they’re at exactly the same level, which is how it is on the football pitch too. Brazilian football has a very specific reputation, but can the same be said of its cuisine? Is there one single thing that unites its many varied regional styles? I think there is, and that’s farinha de mandioca (manioc flour), which you find from north to south. People talk about rice and black beans, but that’s a south-east thing. But flour, well, you find that on any table. I love farofa (flour), every type of it, and I think it’s got this tremendous potential to spread across the world. I see that as essential, and it’s my mission is to be Brazilian when I cook. When I look through a heap of recipes and see at the end that there’s nothing Brazilian in them, I move on to the next one. They’re no good to me. I’m not going to go back on the thing that matters to me most, which is to see people in a restaurant eat and say: ‘Wow, I’m in Brazil. I’ve never tasted anything like that anywhere else.’ You can also experience Brazil’s range of flavours at its stadiums: feijão tropeiro (cattleman’s beans) at the Mineirao, churrasco at the Beira-Rio, not to mention the legendary sanduíche de pernil (fresh ham sandwich). Absolutely. That’s something I see as vital. In the run-up to the World Cup, street food should be raised to the status it enjoys across the rest of the world and the things that make each state different should be preserved. That’s essential. Food is like a branch of human science. How can people speak about Brazil without talking about food? And how can you talk about food without mentioning what people eat in the street? Who do you support? I was a Palmeiras fan, well, I still am (laughs). I’m a Palmeiras fan. I’m a Palmeiras fan. It’s been years since I’ve followed the game as closely as I used to though. Cooking takes up all my time. and I’m not saying ‘I was’ a Palmeiras fan because of the problems the team’s having now. (laughs) By the time the 1990s came around, when Palmeiras were winning everything, I’d stopped going. Did you used to go a lot? Me? Back in the '80s, when Sao Paulo thrashed everyone, I used to go to every game and support my Palmeirinha (laughs). I went to games in upstate Sao Paulo too. We’d take the bus and bet on who could go to most state championship games, keeping the tickets as proof. I love the fresh ham sandwiches too. I do that ham at Dalva e Dito, just like they do it at the stadium, and serve it at business lunches. Eating one of those before or after a game is something you just have to try in life.   Turning to the FIFA World Cup now, what’s your favourite memory of the competition? I’ll never forget 1982. That was the World Cup of my life. I remember the party in 1970. I was only two but I’ve got these vague memories of the celebrations. I remember my grandfather and how happy people were. 1982 was a real blow to the heart because I was sure Brazil would win. I knew the World Cup music off by heart. '82 really hurt. It’s a complete coincidence, but I’ve only been a father in years when Brazil have won the World Cup. I had one son in 1994 and another in 2002. Are you planning to have another in 2014 then? (Laughs) No, no. It’s something to think about, though (laughs). You know it’s funny: I’ve only seen my wife pregnant during World Cups. From : Fifa