Arsene Wenger donned his football boots to take part in a charity match at the new Thierry Roland Stadium in northern Paris.
The former Arsenal boss played for the Variétés club de France - of whom Roland had been president for 32 years - for a match against FC Coubron, winning 7-1.
The new facility in Seine-saint-denis is named after the French commentator who died in 2012, and is the first synthetic surface in the region.
Of the game, Wenger said: 'Thierry Roland has done a lot for French football, everyone knows it's amazing that he did not have a complex to his name sooner, he regrets.
'His son regularly came to the stadium when I was training Arsenal.'
The journalist's wife was present as well as her two children to watch the unveiling of the new pitch.
'We were the only municipality in Seine-Saint-Denis to have no synthetic football pitch,' said Mayor Ludovic Toro.
'So I did everything to repair this lack. When it was necessary to find a name, that of Thierry Roland came quickly as he gave for his passion. The project cost about 500 000 €, of which 75% of subsidy.
teobdklru
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Shut up....Some of us fans are easily deluded. As much as i have deep respect for Arsene Wenger, he is also part of the problem we are going through now. Recently, when the board released money....his recruits were not good enough (Mustafi-35m, Xhaka 35m, Ozil (lazy player) huge wage.... We have no player of great value that can earn us around 80m in the squad now. It may be harsh to say but its the truth "Wenger built Arsenal team and destroyed it unknowingly before he left" and he knows about this. That's why he said he regretted staying in Arsenal for long. Who is the Veira of this squad, Who is the Pires, Who is the Gilberto, who is the Campbell.....He replaced these players with weak minded players that are prone to mistakes and lack winning mentality.