The news had been expected for two weeks, Franck Ribéry made it official on Friday, October 21: the midfielder is retiring at 39. “The ball stops, but not my feelings for him”wrote on Twitter the former international with 81 caps with the France team.
The ball stops. The feelings inside me do not. ✨ The ball rests. The feelings inside me don’t. ✨ Le ballon s’arrette may… https://t.co/CQdML79d74
If he dreamed of playing until he was 40, the winger is forced to put away the crampons by recurring knee injuries. In more than twenty years of professional career, the native of Boulogne-sur-Mer will have known the heights of football, from the final of the World Cup in 2006 to his victory in the Champions League in 2013 with Bayern Munich, of which he has become a legend.
His record, one of the finest in his sport in France, will however be marked by the episode of Knysna, in South Africa, when the Blues refused to get off the bus in the middle of the 2010 World Cup.
More information to follow…