“At some point you have to know how to shake hands. With these words, Hugo Lloris, 36, announced to the newspaper L’Equipe on Monday 9 January his decision to end his international career. The goalkeeper and captain of the 2018 World Cup France football team holds the record for the number of selections at the Blues: 145.
“I’d rather go to the top than wait for a slowdown or too much competition,” he said three weeks after France’s defeat by Argentina in the FIFA Cup final. “It’s not easy to announce this, but after fourteen years of defending this jersey, which I’ve worn with great joy, pride, duty and responsibility, I believe I’ve reached the end,” says Hugo Lloris, adding that he “feels like he’s given everything” in Team France. “I was fortunate to have shaped the history of French football with my generation and you can’t take that away from me.”
“A little time for my family”
In this interview, the player also says that he is optimistic about the future of the Blues. “I think behind the team is ready to move on, there’s also a goalkeeper who’s ready,” he said, citing the name of his designated replacement in the three-color cage, Mike Maignan. Packet in Qatar, the AC Milan goalkeeper is expected to be number 1 in the French team as part of the next Euro 2024 qualifiers from March.
Hugo Lloris also said he had – alongside France national team coach Didier Deschamps – also warned French Football Federation (FFF) president Noël Le Graët about his retirement from the national team. “I sent him a message,” he says, specifying that he did not understand the FFF President’s words to Zinedine Zidane: “I don’t know what prompted him to express himself like that, but you have to be respectful of it the players who, like Zidane, gave so much to the French team. (…) Such statements do neither the coach nor football any service. We must not divide around the French team, we must unite. »
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Asked on RMC on Sunday whether the ex-Real Madrid coach, who is seen as the number one option at the top of the Blues should Didier Deschamps not renew his contract, had called him in recent days, Noël Le Graët was brittle and nonchalant: “I wouldn’t even have picked him up on the phone,” he blurted out.
At L’Equipe, Hugo Lloris explains that he “needs a little time to [lui]to [s]to family, e.g [s]are children”. “And I hope that with the leave of absence I can play at the highest level for a few more years and have more freshness,” continues the player, who has a contract with English club Tottenham until 2024.
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Tennis player before soccer
Hugo Lloris has been a capper since 2008 and was handed the captaincy of France in November 2010 by former coach Laurent Blanc, who succeeded Raymond Domenech after the Knysna (South Africa) fiasco. Didier Deschamps made him a foundational man for the Blues, which culminated in a Euro 2016 final, the 2018 World Cup title and a new World Cup final on December 18. “A very great servant of the French team says goodbye and I would like to pay tribute to his extraordinary career,” reacted the coach, praising a “remarkable” man who was “always oriented towards the collective”.
Hugo Lloris has stayed at the top for fourteen and a half seasons with notable saves. In the French team’s guest book, he appears alongside the greatest goalkeepers such as Joël Bats and Fabien Barthez. Tennis player before turning to football, Lloris did not choose the position of goalkeeper by accident: he retains a certain independence, a certain individualism within the collective. This autonomy is a rarity in his career, which he manages without agents or official advisers.
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During the World Cup in Qatar, his decision to quickly drop the included One Love armband, believing he wanted to “keep the focus on the game”, drew criticism from some federations. At the emirate, Lloris finished as the most-capped Frenchman in history ahead of Lilian Thuram (142 selections), an almost natural result for this superb professional who has had a smooth and regular career from Nice, his hometown, to Tottenham, where he plays, for ten years through Lyon, the scene of his birth.
His international retirement opens the succession for the post of captain of the national team. Vice-captain Raphaël Varane is a natural candidate, as is Kylian Mbappé, the blues strongman, at just 24.