He was the youngest of a family with five sons. He arrived in France at the age of 5 years. His father was a
bricklayer who settled in
Artix, near
Pau, while his mother settled in
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. During his childhood, he dominated three languages,
Spanish,
Basque and
French. Wanting to become a
curate, he attended the Gimont seminar from the seventh to the fourth year and then, the Christ Roi in Toulouse until the first year. Parallelly, he practiced many sports activities such as track and field, handball and rugby union, attending the
Section Paloise's club. Scouted at the age of 16 by the
Toulouse Olympique talent scout, he engaged himself and quickly demonstrated real attitude to play for Toulouse Olympique in
First Division at the age of 17 and become a French international at age 17. As rugby league could not afford him a living, he parallelly sat and passed a police inspector competitive exam in Toulouse and occupied this activity between 1975 and 2007, appreciating the "feeling of usefulness" of said profession, attending the
criminal justice,
vice unit and
liquor licence services. He allied for his entire rugby league player career with his police inspector work. ==Player career==