Mathieu Bastareaud announces that he will retire at the end of the season

“Basta” will hang up the crampons. Just crowned in the Challenge Cup final with Toulon, Friday May 19, Mathieu Bastareaud announced that he would end his career at the end of the season. “It’s my last trophy, and next week it will be my last game at Mayol”said the former French international at the microphone of BeIN Sports just after the final whistle.

“I gritted my teeth for a year. I wanted to stop on my own two legs. It’s done […] I’m lucky to be able to win one last trophy before I bow out.”

At 34, Mathieu Bastareaud will therefore play the last matches of his career at the end of the Top 14 season. regular season) against Bordeaux-Bègles on May 28. Unless there is a miracle scenario (a bonus and wide victory against UBB as well as a victory without bonus on both sides of Bayonne against Lyon at the same time), he will not play in the final phase.

The native of Créteil will have spent eleven years in Toulon, with a Brennus shield (2014) and four European cups (2013, 2014, 2015) at stake. A former tricolor international (54 caps between 2009 and 2019), he won the Grand Slam at the Six Nations Tournament with the Blues in 2010 and played in a World Cup in 2015, before retiring internationally in 2019.