Lhe heroes of Moscow are only 25 left. “I have decided to put an end to my career as a professional footballer”, explains former Paris SG player Blaise Matuidi in a long video posted on YouTube, a few days after going support the Blues in Qatar. This hardworking, left-handed midfielder with an impressive volume of play to compensate for a sometimes rough technique, will have been able to impose himself everywhere for seventeen years among the professionals, and even in the France team, where the coach Didier Deschamps has counted on his loyalty and his sense of sacrifice.
Football, I loved you so much. Football, you gave me so much, but the time has come to say stop. I accomplished my dreams as a child, my dreams as a man. It is with a tight throat but with pride that I turn this page today.
— Blaise Matuidi (@MATUIDIBlaise) December 23, 2022
MERCI ❤️
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“It has never been easy for me. People have always waited for me, I didn’t necessarily have the technical qualities beyond the average, and I had to whip, constantly, to show that, mentally, in terms of effort, sacrifice, I was at the above others. I think I reached the pinnacle on that,” Matuidi explains in this video, in front of photos of his career, the shirts he wore and some trophies he won, including a copy of the World Cup. “The apotheosis, world champion. That, I had not imagined, I dreamed it once, when in 1998, they raised it. »
An impressive career
Author of nine goals in 84 selections, the native of Toulouse has started 72 times in the tricolor jersey, even wearing the captain’s armband six times between 2012 and 2020. From his debut in Troyes, in 2004, to his last title in 2020 with Juventus Turin, passing through his explosion at the highest level in Saint-Étienne, Matuidi made all his clubs happy, winning five French championships with Paris Saint-Germain, where he played from 2011 to 2017 .
“The Trojan family is proud of you, Blaise. What a journey, what a huge career, ”responded Estac, his first professional club, on Twitter. “Bravo Blaise Matuidi for everything you have accomplished, from the Cauldron lawn to the roof of the world! also wrote Asse on the social network.
Elected best French player by the magazine France Football in 2015 in front of Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, “Blaisou” ended his career in Blue with a draw against Turkey (1-1), at the Stade de France. He then chose to join Inter Miami for a final challenge. But the Florida club removed him from its list of players for the 2022 season of MLS, the North American championship, leaving Matuidi without a professional match since November 2021.
“Coming to the end”
“I had the chance to play in the biggest European clubs, to wear the jersey of the national team, to make my family vibrate, to live from my passion and these are images that will remain with me”, affirmed the ex-French international.
He is the first 2018 world champion to announce his end of career: other veterans, such as Steven Nzonzi or Adil Rami, are still evolving among professionals, while Benjamin Mendy, accused of seven rapes in England and awaiting his judgment , has not played a single match since August 2021. “My head, my heart, tell me to say stop and think about mine, my wife, my children, this life I have built. I think I have reached the end of what I am capable of bringing, ”explains the former Parisian, known for his outstretched arms and inclined body celebration.
Blaise Matuidi will remain a locker room leader, smiling and lodger. His temperament will have given ideas to French rap. The rapper MHD notably paid tribute to him with a verse to his glory: “Matuidi charo, Matuidi charo”, revealing his attitude on the ground. In recent months, Matuidi had developed its activities outside of football, notably by creating an investment fund dedicated to supporting tech start-ups.