Guest of Rothen ignites this Monday on RMC on Monday, the Montpellier Wahbi Khazri striker settles his accounts at the end of a nightmarish season, marked by the relegation of the Hérault club in League 2. The Tunisian striker returns to his complicated relations with his former coach Michel Der Zakarian, his relationship with his teammate Téji Savanier and his weight of form.
The relegation of Montpellier now ratified, Wahbi Khazri, one of the most experienced players in the locker room, decided to deliver his truths. Guest of Rothen ignites this Monday on RMC on Monday, the Tunisian striker responded to the criticisms who accompanied him during this nightmarish season. In particular on its weight.
“I don’t pretend to have had a big career but I am proud of it. I made two World Cups, I made European matches and in all the clubs where I have spent, I have always made my 30 games per season. And you are not doing 30 games per season for 15 years overweight,” he said. “I know that I have always given everything on the field, he added. I have never cheated. I have not always been good, I assume it, no worries. But I have the same weight as when I play against France at the 2022 World Cup, where in front of me I have Varane, Saliba, Konaté, and I score (1-0 victory of Tunisia).”
“Der Zakaria, tactically, was very limited”
Whabi Khazri has it especially after Michel Der Zakarian, the former Montpellier coach, dismissed during the season. “This gentleman, tactically he was very limited,” he tackles. “He has the right to want to discard and send shit to me. But everyone has to assume. I have made games where I went through and I assume them. But there are few matches where I played my post, under the attacker, in ten or in nine quite free, and it went well.”
-The 34-year-old, a native of Corsica, takes as an example some meetings where he evolved in his preferential position: “We won 7-0 in Brest (in 2023-24), 4-0 in Monaco (the same season). The last match when I played in this position, it was this year, against Brest, one of the rare victories (3-1, at the end of November). But it went well (…) But I don’t know why I was not renewed in this position.
“It says a lot about what you want to put me on my back”
The former goalscorer of Bastia, Troyes or Saint-Etienne also mentioned a match of the start of the season against PSG (defeat 6-0): “We are going to the Parc des Princes, I did not play a match in preparation as an attacker, you put me in the tip. When you know the level of PSG … After you put me on the bench by saying you were not good. Of course, all alone in front of the park.
Khazri admits, however, having “the balls for the club”, before quenching on his supposed negative influence with Téji Savanier. “This one too is huge,” he said right away. “I don’t know who wrote that. Wahbi Khazri who wants to influence Téji Savanier? When we know the person that is and the character he has … It says a lot about what we want to put me on our backs. Let us be put on our backs that we have come down, ok no worries. But I played ten games this season, I don’t count the six -minute entries.”
“I want to play again, I feel very good”
The Montpellier striker considers that we do too much about the responsibilities of the executives of the Hérault club. “Everyone must assume. But not to point the finger at their failures or lack of level, putting shit on others is too easy. Everyone must assume their mistakes and their incompetence.” At the end of the contract with Montpellier, Wahbi Khazri now hopes to extend his career. “I still want to play, I feel very good,” he says. “When I train and make opposition to training, I am still able to make differences. I can’t wait to show that I can still play.”
