“He is a huge player in French football who bows out today”greeted Jean-Charles Sabattier, journalist at BeIN Sports, specialist in the German championship, on Friday October 21 on franceinfo, while the former star of the France team and Bayern Munich Franck Ribéry formalized the end of his career on Friday. professional.
>> Retirement of Franck Ribéry: how the French international became “Kaiser Franck” at Bayern Munich
Jean-Charles Sabattier emphasizes the “entire, generous temperament” by Franck Ribéry, advanced “enormous injustice” of “not having awarded him the Ballon d’Or” in 2013. The journalist still mentions “the painful break” with the Blues after the Knysna affair, the strike of French players during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
franceinfo: Is the story between Franck Ribéry and Bayern Munich a long and beautiful love story?
Jean-Charles Sabattier: These are 12 absolutely incredible years achieved by Franck Ribéry, 24 titles won by the one who arrived from Olympique de Marseille and who already had a lot of pressure on his shoulders after a rather incredible World Cup achieved with the France team in 2006. It was necessary to have this capacity for Franck Ribéry to be able to settle immediately in a huge club like Bayern Munich.
When we see the tributes paid to him by all of the biggest names in Bayern Munich, we understand the impact that Franck Ribéry has had today. He played 425 matches in all competitions with this club. And of course, the absolute realization, this famous year 2013 where he won the treble with the Champions League at the end and where he was crowned best player by UEFA. Unfortunately for him, in that same year, this enormous injustice of not having awarded him the Ballon d’Or.
What makes him a great footballer?
It’s his temper. He is a player who evolves as man evolves. It’s an entire temperament, sometimes volcanic, but so generous, with absolutely extraordinary technical abilities that has depressed and discouraged many opponents who have faced him. I still had the opportunity to talk to some of his opponents who still have nightmares about his inside hooks, his acceleration abilities. Franck was the ability to be able to unlock a match on his own, but also and above all to be able to support his partners when they needed it. He is a huge player in French football who bows out today.
He is an idol in Bavaria and elsewhere. But the story with the French supporters and with the Blues is a little more tumultuous. Why ?
With the French supporters, maybe not. Because I think the vast majority of supporters still have the wonderful Franck Ribéry in their hearts. Everyone remembers that goal against Spain and that crazy race around Francky’s pitch. It is rather a resentment in relation to what happened, in particular in relation to certain French media which caused him a real inner break, a real inner pain, but which he knew how to manage perfectly with his family. For this reason, it is less present today on the side of France. But I am convinced that those who love football, who have seen it evolve throughout these twenty years of an absolutely incredible career, have Ribéry in their hearts.
Is there a little unfinished taste in Blue?
Yes, of course. Because the decision to have to give up for the 2014 World Cup is made in extremis. Back problem. There is a bit of misunderstanding about all of this. There is of course what happened four years before on the side of Knysna where everyone falls on him when he arrives to try to explain the inexplicable on the occasion of a broadcast on TF1. He did it with a lot of generosity to try, with his words, to explain what was happening, to try to support the group. He was positioning himself there as a leader that he naturally is anyway, even if a lot of people have tried to undermine this status.
It was this break that was painful for Franck in his relationship, particularly with certain French media, which caused his estrangement from us, even if that did not prevent us from being delighted and enjoying what he was able to offer us on the ground, even until the last moments. I am thinking in particular of the maintenance of Salernitana last season. Not one person would have bet a kopeck to see this club stay in the Italian Serie A.