Partner of Yoan Gourcuff in the French team, Mathieu Valbuena confirmed the discomfort experienced by the Breton with the Blues, pointing out his “lack of mentality”.
Yoann Gourcuff's career will have left a taste of unfinished business. And not only because of the numerous injuries that have plagued her, preventing her from regaining the level displayed with the Girondins. The native of Ploemeur never managed to win in the French team either, neither Raymond Domenech, nor even Laurent Blanc, his coach in Bordeaux, managed to give him confidence.
The former Milanese will also have suffered from his complicated relationships with some of his teammates, first and foremost Franck Ribéry. The best illustration was obviously the 2010 World Cup where the Breton playmaker's discomfort was particularly palpable. A discomfort confirmed by Mathieu Valbuena, teammate of Yoann Gourcuff in the French team.
“Yoann didn’t have the mentality”
“Yoann Gourcuff was the same thing. I know this because I experienced it in 2010, with the World Cup in South Africa. Frank was there too. Yoann didn't have the mentality. He had incredible talent, but if he lost one or two balls and Franck, who was a competitor, saw him, he could yell at him. He had that mentality, Franck, that of a leader. He was losing all his football”, he recently confided in the show Le podcast des Légendes.
Mathieu Valbuena explained that he himself had been a victim of Franck Ribéry's excesses but had reacted quite differently. “Sometimes Francky yelled at me, but in a good way. What I mean is that Francky is like that. It didn't bother me or anything, he continued. On the contrary, I made it a strength. But Yoann is much more mentally fragile. I remember it at the World Cup in 2010, sometimes Yoann lost the ball and he said to him: 'The ball is your friend, it's not fire!', and he quickly lost his temper. Franck wasn't there to make you lose his means, but that's how Francky is. That's also the difference. »
