A favorite who is leaving, another (perhaps) returning, a retired person worn out and a weakened model. Here, in a few lines, is the summary of the last few days offered by Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Raphaël Varane and Kylian Mbappé. Each in their own situation, these football figures have indeed made headlines despite their absence – temporary or permanent – from the French team. The other Blues were very present on the field in the League of Nations but did not arouse any real enthusiasm. Like football as a whole, whose popular fervor is slowly fading.
France no longer has a favorite
The first to enter the scene, or rather to leave it, was Griezmann. Obviously having reached the end of his international adventure, the Mâconnais preferred to announce his retirement from the selection and focus on his excellent dynamics at Atlético de Madrid. Enough to deprive the French team of its last pure playmaker and the public of its favorite. Born in the eyes of the French in 2016 during the Euro at home, Griezmann embodied the Deschamps-style Blues, mixed with technical mastery and sometimes boring but often saving pragmatism. Before force-feeding. So when the wind of tensions linked to an unassigned captain’s armband began to blow, number 7 preferred to withdraw. At the right time, in the right tempo. Having become a disreputable object to look at, this French team now finds itself deprived of the only esthete that still remained from the old school (while waiting for Bradley Barcola?) and sees its gap with supporters – less and less loyal – dig deeper.
The illustration of this declining passion on the ground continued in the “Grizou” case. With the furtive media appearance of another veteran: Paul Pogba. On a small promotional tour of the film 4 ZerosLa Pioche resurfaced to show its satisfaction with the reduction of its suspension for doping, from four years to eighteen months. « In terms of maturity, this period made me grow. In the space of a year and a half, I grew up, maybe ten years! » he explained to us. Some words that could almost be interpreted as a breath of fresh air for football fans. Because yes, whether or not we appreciate the good nature of Juventus playerthe hope of wanting to touch the leather again is a pleasure. Much more, in any case, than the two weeks without flavor recently offered by the international break.
Fed up and model in difficulty
Tastelessness is precisely what pushed Raphaël Varane to say stop, period. Tired, injured and jaded, the defender surfed on this rhyme scheme to retire from sports. « When I talk about mental health, it’s not to play less, for me, it’s because football is in overdrive and the machine is going to break down »he recounted in The Team when explaining his choice. Mental wear and tear, conditioned by physical sacrifices that have become heavy to bear and an almost non-existent pleasure in recent times, particularly in gaming: « There is a lot less creativity, fewer geniuses on the ground. Everything is robotized, There is much less freedom”, cursed the person concerned. Who can contradict him? Coming from the words of a champion barely 31 years old, these words take on an even greater meaning, and make it clear that these global criticisms are not the work of old reactors in a nostalgic crisis.
Finally, among these four destinies, how can we not mention that of Kylian Mbappé. Mired in a matter as delicate as it is vague, the Real Madrid striker has eclipsed everything in recent days. Starting with the France team, obviously. The image of the youth model, established since his first steps as a professional, is today weakened, far from the lawns. It must be said that behind Mbappé, the whole pattern of modern football seems to be faltering, because of what it embodies in the birth of this football 2.0, where everything is in lockdown (standardization of the game, player communication, overloaded calendars ). World champions in 2018, Griezmann, Pogba, Varane, and Mbappé, will have, in less than two weeks, told four distinct stories with a similar trend: football is only talked about through its side effects.
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