A page in the history of French football is turning. At 39, Franck Ribéry announced his retirement on Friday October 21. The twirling winger with 81 selections for the France team can no longer bear the pain caused by his knees. Absent from the field since mid-August, he preferred to hang up his crampons, he who aspired to stretch his professional career until his 40th birthday in April.
“The time has come for me to quit footballhe announces in the video posted on his social networks. Despite the efforts made over the past three months, the pain in my knee has only gotten worse and the doctors are positive. I no longer have a choice: I have to stop playing. It’s the end of a beautiful chapter in my life.”
The ball stops. The feelings inside me do not.
Der Ball ruht. Die Gefühle in mir nicht.
The ball stops but not my feelings for him.
It pallon if closed. Le emozioni dentro di me, no.Thanks to everyone for this great adventure. #FR7 #Elhamdulillah pic.twitter.com/Ku4i1MeEbE
— Franck Ribery (@FranckRibery) October 21, 2022
At 39, and after nineteen seasons in the professional world, Franck Ribéry leaves behind one of the finest careers in French football. Revealed late at Olympique de Marseille (2005-2007), after a winding start to his career (Boulogne, Alès, Brest, Metz, Galatasaray), he wore the blue jersey for eight years. Surprise guest of the 2006 World Cup, he had retired from international football after his package for the 2014 edition.
In the meantime, the kid from Chemin Vert – his neighborhood in Boulogne-sur-Mer – had become “Kaiser Franck” at Bayern Munich. In twelve years in Bavaria, the Frenchman had won the status of icon there, pocketing 23 titles including 9 German championships, and especially the 2013 Champions League. At the top of his game that year, Ribéry had finished on the third step of the podium of a Golden Ball which was promised to him, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, qualifying this episode of “biggest theft of (his) career”.
Franck Ribéry is also about escapades and controversy, like the Zahia affair, in which he was finally released in 2014. In 2010, his involvement in the French fiasco at the South African World Cup in Knysna had also tarnished its image.
In 2019, at 36, he joined Italy and Fiorentina to discover a new championship, before extending the pleasure with the promoted Salernitana last year. Captain at the start of the season, Ribéry had to shorten his last lap in the fall. He will leave behind him the image of an unpredictable player, sometimes mocked, but who was undoubtedly the best French player of his generation, stuck between that of Zidane and that of the 2018 world champions.