He left a “little”. After losing the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, veteran goalkeeper Hugo Lloris decided to retire from the French team. The 36-year-old footballer announced it in an interview; However, that wasn’t the only thing he said. To the surprise of many, he spoke about Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez’s penalty shoot-out performance and made controversial statements.
“I haven’t been very successful in this exercise in my career. It didn’t stop me from saving big penalties and I won a few shootouts but I lost a lot too. There are goalkeepers who are more successful than others,” he said at the beginning of the dialogue with L’Equipe.
Referring to the Albiceleste goalkeeper’s gestures during his team-mates’ executions, the Tottenham goalkeeper labeled those maneuvers as “idiocy”.
‘Dibu’ Martínez was key in the penalty shoot-out against France. Photo: Composite LR/AFP
“There are things I don’t know how to do. Doing stupid things in goal, pretending to destabilize the opponent, playing at the limit… I don’t know how to do it. I’m too rational, too honest, to get into this realm. I don’t know how to win like this; even though I really didn’t want to lose like that…” he added.
Although he avoided speaking further on the subject, he considered the side led by Lionel Messi a worthy winner of the World Cup and highlighted what Martinez had done.
“You have to applaud Argentina’s victory and say that it was crucial. Afterwards, at the celebration, he was judged quite strongly, so I don’t need to add anything. During the penalty shootout itself, he did everything he could to destabilize,” he concluded.